The European Commission has fined € Pierre Cardin and its largest licensee, Ahlers, € 5.7 million for violating EU antitrust rules. They restricted cross-border sales of Pierre Cardin-branded clothing and limited sales to specific customers.
Retailers often seek to buy products in lower-priced markets and sell them in higher-priced markets. This practice typically results in lower prices in the higher-priced markets. However, restrictions on such parallel trade can isolate national markets, allowing manufacturers or suppliers to charge higher prices, which harms consumers. Additionally, these restrictions can reduce product diversity. Consequently, limitations on parallel trade create non-regulatory barriers that hinder the proper functioning of the Single Market and represent some of the most serious restrictions on competition.
“Today, we have fined Pierre Cardin and its licensee Ahlers for restricting cross-border trade in clothing, in breach of competition rules. This behaviour illegally fragmented our Single Market. It prevented consumers from shopping around for a better deal and from benefiting from greater choice,” Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President in charge of competition policy, announced.
The infringement
Pierre Cardin is a French fashion house that licenses its trademark to allow third parties to produce and sell clothing under the Pierre Cardin brand. Ahlers, the largest licensee in the European Economic Area (EEA), engaged in anticompetitive agreements with Pierre Cardin from 2008 to 2021, violating Article 101 of the TFEU and Article 53 of the EEA Agreement.
These agreements aimed to shield Ahlers from competition by preventing other licensees from selling Pierre Cardin-branded clothing outside of their licensed territories or to discount retailers offering lower prices. This cooperation ensured Ahlers’ exclusive territorial protection and created barriers in the internal market.
Affected individuals or companies may bring this matter to the courts of the Member States to seek damages.
