EU Slaps $130 Million Fine on Four Electronics Firms For Fixing Online Prices (cnbc.com)

The European Commission imposed a fine of 111 million euros ($130 million) on four consumer electronic firms Tuesday, for fixing prices on their resold items. From a report: Asus, Denon & Marantz, Philips and Pioneer all limited the ability of online retailers to price items as they saw fit. The four manufacturers apparently threatened or sanctioned the online retailers who wouldn't comply with their price suggestions. "These well-known manufacturers of consumer electronics, they put pressure on online retailers to maintain higher prices. They did so during a period from 2011 and 2015," Margrethe Vestager, the European competition commissioner, said in a press conference Tuesday. "As a result of the actions taken by these four companies, millions of European consumers faced higher prices for kitchen appliances, hair dryers, notebook computers, headphones and many other products," Vestager said, adding that this behavior is "illegal under EU antitrust rules."

Comments

id not understand

[houghi]

I read /. there are always people who claim th EU just tsxrs US companies. Oh wait. I live in Europe and do iunderstand that the EU is not after US companies, but after those that break the law.
Correlation is not causation.

Re:Isn't this common in consumer electronics retai

[Anonymous Coward]

Setting MAPs is legal in Canada: https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=0425169d-f2eb-4f50-aaf3-514aa52f496c

Re:Isn't this common in consumer electronics retai

[Gievers]

You may be right with your comment. But in some cases I don't see the benefit for the market.

For example in Germany (and maybe other EU-countries as well) all ebike manufactures press their resellers to keep a certain price. Its just very obvious, because all local shops and online resellers stick to the same price. There is no benefit for the customer, when I look at the online reviews of the ebike shops. Bad customer service everywhere. After some consideration I bought an ebike with Chinese components directly from an importer for half the price of big brands. And after changing some minor components I'm extremly happy with it.

My experience with Pioneer. As a reseller I get a "price advice" from my distributor as a warning. If I don't stick to it, they won't sell to me next time.

Re:It's just business as usual...

[houghi]

The fines in Europe are not fixed. They look at the profit that has been made.

A similar thing would result in different fines for other companies, depending on how much they made of it. And rest asured, they did not make any money of it.

Oh and givbing millions to each side in politics? First: that is not that easy in Europe and secondly, do you have ANY ideas how many parties there are in Europe? Hint: It is more than two and there are much more sides than just 2.