EU Fines Pierre Cardin and Ahlers for Antitrust Breaches

Brussels (Eurotoday) – The EU Commission has handed over a total penalty of 5.7 million euros to French fashion house Pierre Cardin and German clothing maker Ahlers for violating EU antitrust laws.

As reported by the press the European Commission has fined Pierre Cardin and its largest licensee Ahlers a total of €5.7 million for breaching EU antitrust rules by limiting cross-border sales of Pierre Cardin-branded clothing, as well as sales of such products to distinctive customers.

Pierre Cardin is a French fashion house that permits its trademark to permit third parties to manufacture and distribute Pierre Cardin-branded clothing. Ahlers was the biggest licensee of Pierre Cardin clothing in the European Economic Area (‘EEA’) during the violation.

How did Pierre Cardin violate EU antitrust rules?

According to the EU Commission, its investigation figured that, between 2008 and 2021, Pierre Cardin and Ahlers entered into anticompetitive arrangements and engaged in concerted practices to protect Ahlers from competition in those EEA countries where the group held a Pierre Cardin licence, in violation of Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU’).

How did Pierre Cardin restrict cross-border clothing sales?

In particular, the EU Commission discovered that such anticompetitive agreements and concerted approaches aimed at stopping other Pierre Cardin licensees and their customers from selling Pierre Cardin-branded clothing, both offline and online: (i) outside their licensed territories; and/or (ii) to low-price retailers (such as discounters) that showed the clothing to consumers at lower costs. 

Consequently, the ultimate goal of such coordination between Pierre Cardin and Ahlers was to ensure Ahlers’ absolute territorial defence in the countries covered by its licensing deals with Pierre Cardin in the EEA. These unfair practices prevent retailers from being able to freely source products in Member States with lower costs and artificially partition the internal market.