The French Competition Authority (Autorité de la concurrence) fined manufacturer Mobotix and its authorised wholesalers ACTN, Be IP and EDOX a total of EUR 1,4m for fixing resale prices and restricting online sales of these products.
Mobotix
Mobotix manufactures and sells cameras and video surveillance systems to authorised wholesalers. The wholesalers are in turn responsible for promoting and developing a network of resellers-installers. These retail resellers ultimately market the products to the end customers.
Press release French Competition Authority
The press release of the French Competition Authority reports that Mobotix and its authorised wholesalers restricted competition by directing the pricing policy of the resellers-installers. More specifically, Mobotix is said to have agreed with its wholesalers that they would ensure that the resellers adhere to the recommended resale prices communicated by Mobotix. In doing so, Mobotix and the wholesalers are stated to have imposed indirectly fixed resale prices on the independent resellers, a practice prohibited under EU competition law
In addition, the French Competition Authority found Mobotix to restrict online sales by requiring its wholesalers to only select resellers-installers who sold a limited part of their products online.
A full (French) version of the decision is available on the website of the French Competition Authority.
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