{"id":4150,"date":"2017-08-01T09:50:05","date_gmt":"2017-08-01T07:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.legalmondo.com\/?p=4150\/"},"modified":"2020-01-05T21:19:27","modified_gmt":"2020-01-05T20:19:27","slug":"ban-price-comparison-tools-anti-competitive-void","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.legalmondo.com\/ru\/2017\/08\/ban-price-comparison-tools-anti-competitive-void\/","title":{"rendered":"Ban of Price Comparison Tools: anti-competitive and void?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manufacturers of brand-name products<\/strong> typically aim to ensure the same level of quality of distribution throughout all distribution channels. To achieve this aim, they provide criteria how to resell their products. With the increase of internet sales, the use of such criteria has been increasing as well.<\/p>\n

Best example: Asics.<\/strong> Until 2010, the German subsidiary Asics<\/strong> Deutschland GmbH supplied its distributors in Germany without applying special criteria. In 2011, Asics launched a selective distribution system called «Distribution System\u00a01.0<\/em>«. It provided, inter alia, for a general ban<\/strong> on distributors to use price comparison tools <\/strong>in online sales:<\/p>\n

«In addition, the authorized B … distributor is not supposed to … support the functionality of price-comparison tools by providing application-specific interfaces (» API») for these price comparison tools.» (translated]<\/em><\/p>\n

The German Federal Antitrust Authority (\u201cBundeskartellamt<\/strong><\/a>\u201d) has determined by decision of 26\u00a0August\u00a02015 that the ban of price-comparison tools<\/strong> against distributors based in Germany was void because it infringed Article\u00a0101 (1) <\/strong>TFEU<\/strong><\/a>, sec.\u00a01 <\/strong>Act on Restraints of Competition<\/strong><\/a> (see the 196-page decision here<\/a>). Reason given was that such ban would primarily aim at controlling and limiting price competition at the expense of consumers. Asics, instead, filed a complaint before the Higher Regional Court of D\u00fcsseldorf to annul the Bundeskartellamt\u2019s decision. Asics argued that this ban was a proportionate quality standard within its «Distribution System 1.0<\/em>«, aiming at a uniform product presentation.<\/p>\n

Now the Higher Regional Court of D\u00fcsseldorf<\/strong> on 5 April 2017 confirmed the Bundeskartellamt\u2019s decision that within selective distribution systems the general ban to use price comparison tools was anti-competitive and therefore void (ref. no.\u00a0VI-Kart 13\/15 (V); see also the Bundeskartellamt\u2019s press release<\/strong><\/a> in English):<\/p>\n