Cyriel Ruers and Paul Breithaupt advise on competition law strategy in a dispute with supplier implementing selective price increases. The supplier of premium brands, who is also a manufacturer of private label products, tried to charge significantly higher prices to the purchasing organisation compared to other customers, without objective justification. Maverick Lawyers provided the purchase organisation with strategic advice, after which the supplier reversed the increase.
Suppliers may have different reasons to increase prices or charge different prices per customer. This is generally allowed, but there are limits, for example if the price increase is intended to punish the customer for charging too low prices when reselling the products. This is called resale price maintenance and is prohibited under the cartel prohibition. The Authority for Consumers and Markets is cracking down on this and has previously fined Samsung €40 million for resale price coordination.
For more information on resale price maintenance and influence of suppliers on prices, see this blog.
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