THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION FINED RESTRICTIONS FOR CROSS-BORDER SALES OF HELLO KITTY

17/07/2019

The European Commission has fined Japanese company Sanrio €6.2 million for banning traders from selling licensed merchandise to other countries within the EEA. Sanrio is a company that designs, licenses, produces and sells products featuring Hello Kitty and the other popular characters.

The Commission opened an antitrust investigation into Sanrio In June 2017, on the claims that the company restricted traders from cross-border and online sale within the EEA. The Commission found that these practices and agreements breached the EU competition rules. These infringements are classified by the Commission as follows:

• Direct restrictions (e.g. clauses explicitly prohibiting these sales, limitations to the languages used on the merchandising products, obligations to refer orders for out-of-territory sales by licensees)
• Indirect restrictions (e.g. audits, non-renewal contracts if licensees did not comply with out-of-territory restrictions)

The Commission found that these anti-competitive activities had lasted for 11 years. Sanrio was granted 40% fine reduction in return for its cooperation. Fine reduction was based on Sanrio’s following cooperative behaviours:

• Sanrio cooperated with the Commission beyond its legal obligation and provided information that allowed Commission to unveil the duration of the infringement,
• Sanrio explicitly accepted the infringement.

In conclusion, Sanrio fined €6.222.000 by the Commission after the implementation of the reduction.

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NAZALI ANTITRUST  info@nazali.av.tr