Federal Cartel Office: Fine imposed for resale price maintenance

The German Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) imposed a fine of EUR 300,000 on 12.05.2015 against United Navigation GmbH (“United”) for enforcing resale price maintenance on its retailers from July 2009 until May 2014.

United is a German company with its headquarters in Ostfildern and is active in the development and sales of portable navigation devices sold under the brand names “Becker” and “Falk”.

According to the press release of the FCO, United had monitored in particular the online-prices of its navigation products and notified retailers who had dropped prices below a certain amount. Furthermore, United threatened retailers, who would not comply with the pricing policy, with refusal to supply or legal actions. In addition, certain bonuses were promised by United to retailers, if they would adhere to the pricing policy.

The proceedings were based on cooperation between the Austrian competition authority (“BWB”) and the FCO.

The FCO has taken into account the solvency and cooperation of United when calculating the relatively low fine.

Authors:

Dr. Christina Hummer
Ori Kahn