EU slams Philips, 4 other firms with 111.2m fine

The European Union antitrust authorities have handed down a total fine of 111.2 million euros ($130.1 million) to Philips, Pioneer, Asus and Denon & Marantz on Tuesday for fixing online resale prices.

The European Commission opened an investigation into the four companies in February last year as part of its crackdown against curbs on online sales across-borders, such as restricting offers based on a customer’s location or nationality.

Read also: Facebook suspends another data-analytics firm

Reuters had reported earlier on Tuesday that the EU would penalise Philips and three other companies.

The EU competition enforcer said the companies engaged in “fixed or minimum resale price maintenance” by restricting the ability of their online retailers to set their own retail prices for widely used consumer electronics products such as kitchen appliances, notebooks and hi-fi products.

Philips’ fine was 29.8 million euros, Asus 63.5 million euros, Pioneer 10.2 million euros and Denon & Marantz 7.7 million euros.

 

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