€110,000 fine imposed on nursery furniture manufacturer PAIDI

05.08.2002

The Bundeskartellamt has imposed fines totalling €110,000 on PAIDI Möbel GmbH, Hafenlohr and a high-ranking member of staff for abusively influencing the pricing policy of specialist outlets for baby products.

Between 1999 and the end of 2001 PAIDI, a well-known manufacturer of nursery and children’s furniture had, with some success, applied economic pressure on three long-standing authorized dealers (specialist outlets for baby products) to induce them to raise their sales prices for PAIDI products. The outlets known to pursue “active pricing” policies were refused delivery of a much sought-after range, the Studio Line, and were threatened with an overall break-off in business relations if they refused to include a mark-up of at least 30 per cent in their price calculations for PAIDI products. Initially the baby product outlets bowed to the pressure and as a consequence sold PAIDI articles to some extent only at prices which PAIDI itself set in its sales price lists for these dealers without indicating that these were “non-binding” and only recommended prices.

The President of the Bundeskartellamt, Ulf Böge, stated: “Prices must be determined by competition. Anyone hindering such free pricing, such as seen in PAIDI’s application of pressure on independent dealers, is guilty of committing a grave violation of competition law. This is particularly so in this case as PAIDI is a company which is of great significance for the nursery and children’s furniture market.”

The order to impose the fine is not yet final.

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