The company specializing in high-end teas is sanctioned for having hindered the commercial freedom of its distributors, who could not offer its products online or carry out wholesale sales.
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Smoking teas, but smoky practices. The Competition Authority announced on Monday, December 11, that it had imposed a penalty of four million euros on the company Mariage Frères for cartel practices in the luxury tea sector. The group, one of the main producers of high-end teas in France, has “impeded, for nearly fifteen years, the commercial freedom of its distributors”underlines the Authority in a press release.
To reserve “the exclusivity of the sale of its products remotely and on the internet” and preserve its prestigious image, Mariage Frères prohibited its distributors from marketing online the teas and accessories that they sold in their physical stores. Such a restriction “has been a brake on development” of the activity of distributors, notes the Competition Authority. “We could not control the way our products would be marketed, the quality of the website, and this was likely to harm the brand”had tried to defend the group.
Mariage Frères also prohibited its resellers from distributing its teas to other companies. “This restriction thus granted Mariages Frères exclusivity on wholesale sales and limited the commercial scope of its distributors to sales to individuals”which constitutes “a restriction of competition”denounces the administrative authority.
