Karcher was punished for a long price collusion

German company specialising in the production of cleaning equipment since the late 1990s, being present on the Polish market, established in consultation with its distributors minimum and rigid retail prices of products. The trial continued for nearly 20 years. The Office for Competition and Consumer Protection imposed a fine of PLN 26 million.

The decision issued by UOKiK concerns Karcher, a company operating in Poland, which belongs to a group of companies producing cleaning equipment. According to the evidence collected by the Office, since the late 1990s the entrepreneur in consultation with his distributors has set minimum and rigid retail prices for products. By 2005, the company had imposed on its networks the sale of product prices on both fixed and online sales. After 2005, prices in online shops were mainly determined.

According to UOKiK, in written contracts concluded by Karcher with distributors and general terms of commercial cooperation there were, among another things, provisions according to which distributors were allowed to form the prices of products only on the terms set by Karcher. This meant that the buyers of the Kärcher brand products could not buy them cheaper than at the top-down prices. Entrepreneurs who sold products at lower prices were punished with receiving discounts, depriving marketing support, and in utmost cases it was even possible to terminate cooperation agreements. any sellers actively participated in disciplining the remainder of the entities, informing Karcher of lower prices.

President's comment #UOKiK on company practices
Karcher: The collusion began already in the late 1990s. (...) The agreement initially afraid fixed shops and then online sales pic.twitter.com/P7Y16QNUQi

— UOKiK (@UOKiKgovPL) January 11, 2023

For his participation in the competition restrictive agreement, president of UOKiK Tomasz Chróstny imposed PLN 26 million on Karcher. It is worth noting that the punishment would have been much higher, but the German company benefited from the leniency scheme. She admitted to breaking the law and collaborated with the UOKiK at the phase of the proceedings. He besides provided previously unknown information and evidence, including the duration of the collusion and products whose prices were charged top-down. However, after Karcher had read the amount of the multimillion-dollar penalty, the company withdrew from this procedure.

This is another case where a company with a strong position on the marketplace wants to keep or keep its position and increase profit benefits the consumer. End of 2022. UOKiK imposed punishment on Allegro for the usage of monopoly practices. The first allegation concerns the promotion of its own store at the expense of external retailers. The second decision involves the inclusion of a clause in the Allegro Regulation, in which the company gave itself the right to unilaterally modify the rules of usage of the portal. The full punishment is PLN 210 million. The case against Allegro has been going on for 3 years, and only 3 days before the end of the year was the verdict of punishing the portal. The company announces an appeal against the decision, but has small chance of avoiding a severe fine.

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