The European Commission has slapped anti-trust fines on four companies. Asus, Denon & Marantz, Philips, and Pioneer were all found to be guilty of price fixing with online retailers; which resulted in over €111 million (RM526 million) fines in total.
The four companies are said to have monitored online prices in the European Union from between 2011 and 2015. Contacting retailers that were offering prices below their own recommended retailer prices, and requesting increases. The EC considers this practice to be “fixed or minimum resale price maintenance (RPM)” , and is something that isn’t allowed under EU law.
EC Commissioner of competition policy, Margrethe Vestager, has also granted a reduction in fines for the companies; all for their cooperation in the investigation. The reduction ranges from 40 percent for Asus, Denon & Marantz, and Philips; to 50 percent for Pioneer.
The EU takes a very tough stance on free market competition, leveling heavy fines against companies that it believes are behaving in an unfair manner. Google was the latest high profile case, having been hit with a record level fine for its handling of the Android operating system.
[Source: European Commission]
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