Reuters reports that twelve appliance firms and distributors have been fined €611 million (£507 million) for price fixing in France from 2007 to 2014, including big names such as Electrolux, Whirlpool and LG.
The fines from the Autorité de la Concurrence have been levied againt the manufacturers BSH, Candy Hoover, Eberhardt, Electrolux, Whirlpool, LG, Miele, SEB, Smeg and Whirlpool along with retailers Boulanger and Darty.
“These practices reduced competition between distributors and kept prices artificially high for end consumers,” the competition authority said yesterday.
The authority said that these companies worked together to “reduce competition… and keep prices high for consumers” by avoiding making certain products available for online sale and relying on opaque recommended retail prices.
“The traditional distributors, including the two main ones, Darty and Boulanger – participated fully in these agreements”, says the Autorité.
The collusion of these major outlets ensured that “the products they sold would not be significantly cheaper elsewhere, particularly online”.
This is in addition to the fines issued in 2018 of €189 million.
Groupe SEB, who owns the Tefal and Rowenta brands and received the largest fine of €189.5 million has denied the accusations and said it planned to appeal against the ruling as does the retailer, Boulanger who was fined €84.35 million.
