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

Posted by msmash on Tuesday July 24, 2018 @02:00AM from the paying-the-price dept.

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."

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Re:It's just business as usual... by Anonymous Coward · 2018-07-24 00:57 · Score: -1, Offtopic

Price fixing is when retailers get together and decide to charge certain prices. Price fixing is not when a company sets a retail price for its own product, unless it is done in collaboration with competitors.
The EU gets a lot of money from these cases though.