The European Union fined luxury brands Gucci, Chloe and Loewe a total of more than 157 million euros for violating competition regulations with “negotiated prices”.
The European Union (EU) Commission announced that it has determined that luxury fashion brands Gucci based in Italy, Chloe based in France and Loewe based in Spain violated the Union's competition rules. “The EU Commission has fined fashion brands Gucci, Chloe and Loewe more than 157 million euros for their anti-competitive pricing practices,” the statement said. The statement stated that it was determined that the brands limit the ability of the independent third-party retailers they work with to determine online and offline retail prices, and that the companies set minimum selling prices for their products. The statement reminded that contract price adjustments by rival companies would increase prices and reduce consumer choice, saying these were anti-competitive practices. THEY INTERFER WITH RETAILERS The statement noted that the three fashion companies had engaged in a practice called resale price protection and claimed that they had interfered with their commercial strategies by imposing various restrictions on retailers. In the statement, there was information that Gucci was fined 119 million 674 thousand euros, Chloe was fined 19 million 690 thousand euros and Loewe was fined 18 million 9 thousand euros for violating regulations. The EU Commission has the authority to check whether there is an anti-competitive situation in the sector of companies operating in EU countries. If the EU Commission discovers a situation of violation of competition or antitrust law during the investigation in question, it will put an end to the situation and can impose high fines on the companies.
