Prices kept artificially high
Fritzbox manufacturer AVM has to pay a hefty fine
02.07.2024, 12:21
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AVM restricts the free setting of prices when selling its products. The Federal Cartel Office sees this as illegal price coordination by the Fritzbox manufacturer and has imposed a fine on the company in the double-digit millions.
The Federal Cartel Office is taking action against the Fritzbox manufacturer AVM. The Bonn-based antitrust watchdog imposed fines totaling 16 million euros on the Berlin-based company and one employee, the authority announced. AVM had artificially kept the prices of individual products at six electronics retailers high.
AVM had “restricted the free setting of prices when selling its products to end consumers,” said Federal Cartel Office head Andreas Mundt. With the fines imposed, the Federal Cartel Office was sending “a clear signal that violations of the ban on price fixing will not be tolerated.” The proceedings against AVM were terminated by mutual agreement, the authority and the company said.
Employees of the Berlin company had agreed with the electronics retailers involved on end-user prices for AVM products, the Federal Cartel Office further announced. The retailers’ prices were also continuously monitored. Special software had even been used for this purpose since at least mid-2019.
In many cases, specialist retailers had raised prices for consumers following interventions by the company. “The management of AVM regrets if this approach has caused irritation,” AVM explained. The products were “consistently available in stores at advantageous prices.”
The Federal Cartel Office became aware of the practices through an anonymous tip-off, which was followed by searches in February 2022, it said. The fines are already legally binding because the proceedings were terminated by mutual agreement. No fines were issued against the dealers involved.