Fine imposed for resale price maintenance in the sale of portable nagivation devices

The Bundeskartellamt has imposed a fine of 300,000 euros on United Navigation GmbH, Ostfildern, for enforcing resale price maintenance on retailers selling its products. From July 2009 to May 2014 representatives of the company agreed with several retailers that the latter would not sell portable navigation devices produced by United Navigation below certain end-customer prices. Individual price agreements had already been concluded in 2007 for the navigation devices sold under the brand names "Becker" and "Falk".

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: "Retailers are free to set the price they want for a product. Manufacturers cannot stop them from doing this. They can only make a non-binding price recommendation. Even if the consumer is often under another impression: Resale price maintenance agreements between manufacturers and retailers or the exertion of pressure by manufacturers on retailers to maintain certain price levels were already prohibited in the 1970s."

United Navigation monitored the prices of online retailers in particular. As soon as a retailer dropped its sales price below a certain level, it was asked to maintain the prescribed price level. The so-called "street price" was introduced as an indicator of the price level considered acceptable by United Navigation. This was communicated to the retailers along with the non-binding price recommendation. Most of the retailers raised their prices after being contacted by United Navigation.

In other cases price increases were achieved either under the threat of refusal to supply or of legal action because of the unauthorised use of copyright material or by granting advantages in the form of bonuses for raising rises.

The proceeding was based on information available to the Austrian competition authority and which the Bundeskartellamt followed up in a dawn raid.

In setting the fine the Bundeskartellamt took United Navigation's currently limited financial capacity into account as well as the fact that it had cooperated extensively with the authority and that a settlement could be reached.

The order imposing the fine is not yet final and can be appealed to the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court.