What They Say
Samsung has been fined €40m for price-fixing TVs in the Netherlands. The company coordinated the prices being offered by different retailers according to the Dutch Consumer organisation, Autoriteit Consument & Markt.
You can find a copy of the judgement here (in Dutch)
What We Think
European legislation on price fixing is very strict. The typical way around it was to have an agreed ‘minimum advertised price’ which did seem to be legal at one time. However, the Dutch case seemed to be about the advertising, rather than the actual transaction. In digging around on this topic, I found this response by the European Parliament to a petition requesting the introduction of MAPs in the EU. The EU does allow some control where there are compelling reasons of efficiency, but not generally.
In the past I found that resellers that wanted to get around MAP restrictions would simply advertise either ‘last year’s model’, but supply this year’s (this happened to me when buying a bike) and offering ‘seconds’ or ‘shop soiled/demo units’ that were actually unused. (BR)
