A crackdown on household appliances. Ten manufacturers and two distributors were sanctioned this Thursday by the French Competition Authority and will have to pay a total of 611 million euros in fines. The reason? They agreed to maintain higher sales prices between February 2007 and December 2014.
The objective of these agreements: “Reduce competition, particularly from online distributors, and maintain high sales prices for consumers”specifies the Competition Authority.
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According to a press release from the Authority, the sanctioned companies are: BSH, Candy Hoover, Eberhardt, Electrolux, Whirlpool (as successor to Indesit), LG, Miele, SEB, Smeg, Whirlpool, Boulanger and Darty.
Online distributors discriminated against
The means put in place ranged from banning the sale of certain products on the Internet to communicating “recommended retail prices” by manufacturers with “a coded language to hide price instructions”. And this, then followed by a « surveillance » to ensure that distributors respected them. Distributors active exclusively on the Internet claimed to have been discriminated against if they did not have physical stores.
“Traditional distributors, including the two main ones, Darty and Boulanger, fully participated in these agreements”underlines the Competition Authority. The latter insists on the ” weight “ of the two behemoths which sought to ensure that “the products they sold would not be significantly cheaper elsewhere, particularly online”.
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109 million euros for Fnac Darty
Fnac Darty indicated in a separate press release that the amount of its fine amounted to 109 million euros. The group had provisioned 84 million euros in the first half of 2023 in anticipation of this sanction. He announced Thursday that he “will record an additional charge of 24 million euros for the 2024 financial year, without impact on current operating income”. Like nine others, Fnac Darty had decided not to contest the complaint notified by the Competition Authority for “quickly end a complex procedure” and devote himself to his “strategic plan”.
The manufacturer SEB and the distributor Boulanger chose to contest the complaints and were fined 189.5 and 84.35 million euros respectively. In a press release, SEB indicated that it “will file an appeal” before the Paris Court of Appeal, rejecting “any allegation that its practices did not comply with competition rules”. For its part, Electrolux indicated in a press release that it had taken note of the sanction (44.5 million euros), provisioned in its accounts from 2023.
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A first sanction in 2018
This is not the first time that sanctions have been imposed on certain manufacturers and distributors of household appliances. A first, for a total amount of 189 million euros, was awarded in 2018 in the same case against six of the manufacturers affected by Thursday’s decision. That is to say BSH, Candy Hoover, Eberhardt Frères, Electrolux, Indesit and Whirlpool.
« Between September 2006 and January 2007, then between the end of May 2008 and April 2009, the manufacturers met on several occasions to discuss the increases to be applied to these recommended retail prices. [les prix communiqués aux distributeurs] and set ‘price rules'”, the Authority then explained.
The agreement concerned a market in which competition with Asian manufacturers was strong and which had suffered increases in raw materials. The price increases targeted basic family equipment: refrigerator, washing machine, dishwasher, stove, oven, etc. These increases could range from 20 to several tens of euros.
(With AFP)
