At the beginning of last September, our colleague The Informed revealed that the Competition Authority was investigating a new case of price fixing between manufacturers and distributors of household appliances, specifying that the various companies cited had already provisioned more than 280 million euros to face a possible fine. Provisions which are grossly insufficient given the severity of the sanction imposed by the Authority.
Record fine for 10 manufacturers and 2 distributors
Indeed, the Competition Authority has just delivered its verdict and imposed a penalty of 611 million on ten manufacturers and two distributors, guilty of having implemented vertical price agreements between 2007 and 2014.aimed at maintaining higher sales prices, particularly in the face of the emergence of competing online distributors“, specifies the Authority in a press release.
The sanctioned manufacturers are BSH, Candy Hoover (taken over in 2018 by the Chinese group Haier), Eberhardt, Electrolux, Whirlpool (as successor to Indesit which it bought in 2014), LG, Miele, Seb, Smeg and Whirlpool . On the distributor side, two groups faced sanctions: Boulanger and Fnac Darty.
“Ten of the twelve companies concerned did not dispute the facts and were granted the benefit of the settlement procedure“, notes the Competition Authority. This is not the first time that the household appliances sector has been sanctioned: already in 2018, the Competition Authority had imposed a fine of 189 million euros compared to six manufacturers (BSH, Candy Hoover, Eberhardt Frères, Electrolux, Indesit and Whirlpool) for agreeing on prices between 2006 and 2009.
Related News :