Essilor is slapped on the fingers by the competition regulator. The leader in the optical lens sector has, for more than 10 years, implemented discriminatory commercial practices aimed at hindering the development in France of the online sale of corrective lenses.
In its decision of November 8, the French Competition Authority imposes a heavy penalty of nearly 81 million euros on Essilor International SAS. The parent company EssilorLuxottica SA is also sanctioned jointly and severally, in the amount of 15.4 million euros.
Essor, the main manufacturer and wholesale distributor of optical glasses, dominates the French market. Since the early 2000s, the rules have been relaxed to develop online trade in these products and lower prices, which are higher than in neighboring countries. But between 2009 and 2020, Essilor knowingly hindered the development of online sellers such as Sensee, Happyview and DirectOptic, underlines the Autorité de la concurrence.
Barrier to alternative online channels
This discriminatory policy took several forms. The competition authority observed that Essilor refused to sell lenses of its brand to operators, whereas it did so abroad. The French group also blocked communication on digital channels, preventing online sales sites from using its logo and communicating about the origin of the lenses. Finally, Essilor imposed warranty limitations, making warranty coverage conditional on measurements being taken in-store.
All these practices have contributed to “limiting consumer access to an alternative sales channel and favored the maintenance of a high price level for corrective lenses”, notes the regulator.
The authority maintains that, during the investigation, Essilor did not provide “any element allowing it to be considered that these restrictions were justified by the alleged differences, in particular in terms of the reliability of the measurements taken, existing between the opticians carrying out their activity in physical stores and those operating online.
On the other hand, the Autorité noted that “these restrictions responded to the very strong protectionist expectations of physical opticians with regard to the Essilor group”. The latter were authorized to use the Essilor logo, unlike pure players.