Asus gets a big deal for illegal pricing

The European Commission gives companies Asus, Philips, Pioneer and Denon & Marantz all their strong cuts for being involved in illegal pricing in the EU.

Companies should have limited online sales capacity of their products at low prices and, according to the European Commission, have threatened online stores to lose access to their products if they did not respect not their minimum prices.

– Thanks to the actions of these four companies, millions of European customers have had to pay higher prices for kitchen appliances, hair dryers, laptops, headphones and many other products. It is illegal under the antitrust rules of the EU, "said the European Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager, in a statement.

The European Commission also stresses that behavior in practice is going to beyond the entire market, because many online stores use "price robots" that accompany the prices of other online stores and adjust their own prices accordingly.

Four Cases

four companies have been fined in separate cases, but all act in practice on the same behavior.

• Asus: Performs retail prices in stores and asks stores to increase sales. prices they discover that they are below the recommended selling prices.The case involved Germany and France from 2011 to 2014.
• Denon & Marantz: Pushed by the "price maintenance" between 2011 and 2015 for Denon, Marantz and Boston Acoustics products in Germany and the Netherlands.
• Philips: Driven by the "price maintenance" in France between 2011 and 2013 on a variety of products, such as kitchen machines, vacuum cleaners and hair dryers.
• Pioneer: Driven by "price maintenance" on home theater products, wireless speakers and more. Also limits the possibilities for the stores to sell their products across the EU borders by blocking their orders. The behavior lasted from 2011 to 2013, and consisted of 12 countries, including Norway.

Reduction for Collaboration

The European Commission writes in a message that the four companies have collaborated with them and that they have therefore received a reduction of fines between 40 and 50 per cent.

The boat goes to Asus, well over 600 million crowns. Remise Bot Asus 40 percent

63,522,000 euros / 608 mill.

Denon & Marantz 40 percent [19659022] Philips 40 percent 29,882,000 euros / 285.7 million. Pioneer 50 percent 10 173 000 euros / 97.4 million

All companies also granted the practice, writes the European Commission.