Stefan Mileschin

Price fixing

The European Commission imposed a fine of 111 million euro on four electronic firms for fixing prices on their resold items.

Asus, Denon & Marantz, Philips and Pioneer all limited the ability of online retailers to price items. The four manufacturers threatened or sanctioned online retailers who wouldn't comply with their price suggestions.

Margrethe Vestager, the European competition commissioner, said that the four were 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.

“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”.

All four companies saw the fine lowered between 40 and 50 percent because they cooperated with regulators. The final amounts resulted as follow: Asus to pay 63.5 million euro; Denon & Marantz fined with 7.7 million euro; Philips to pay 29.8 million euro and Pioneer owes 10.2 million euro.

https://fudzilla.com/news/46816-asus...er-fined-by-eu