The Federal Cartel Office has fined three manufacturers and two dealers of musical instruments as well as responsible employees totaling around 21 million euros. The manufacturers and dealers are accused of vertical price fixing, the dealers among themselves also horizontal price fixing in several cases.
The manufacturers (or their sales companies) are Yamaha Music Europe GmbH, Rellingen, Roland Germany GmbH, Rüsselsheim and Fender Musical Instruments GmbH, Düsseldorf. The dealers are Thomann GmbH, Burgebrach and MUSIC STORE professional GmbH, Cologne.
The proceedings were initiated after information from the market with a search in April 2018.
Andreas Mundt, President of the Federal Cartel Office:"For years, manufacturers and dealers of musical instruments have worked systematically to limit price competition with end consumers. The manufacturers have at least urged the leading specialist retailers Thomann and MUSIC Store not to fall below fixed minimum sales prices, which they did in many cases. In addition, the dealers have made agreements with each other in individual cases about price increases for individual products. With the fines imposed, the Federal Cartel Office sends a clear signal not only to the companies concerned, but also to the entire musical instrument industry that violations of the prohibition on fixed prices and price fixing will not be tolerated. "
There was an agreement between manufacturers and dealers to implement the manufacturers' minimum price requirements. If the minimum sales price was not reached, the responsible employees from Yamaha, Roland and Fender contacted Thomann and Music Store several times and asked these dealers to adjust their sales prices, which in many cases also happened. Yamaha and Roland also use price tracking software to monitor retail prices. In isolated cases, sanctions such as a delivery stop or reduction in conditions were threatened or imposed. For some of the products, however, there was no or only sporadic enforcement or monitoring of the specified minimum prices. Often the dealers did not adhere to the guidelines by failing to implement them or bypassing them, for exampleby bundling several products at one total price. Nevertheless, through complaints to Yamaha, Roland and Fender, Thomann and Music Store demanded compliance with minimum prices by other specialist musical instrument dealers. In part, this was done in response to complaints about their own prices being too low.
In the course of the proceedings for vertical price fixing, there were indications of horizontal price agreements between the musical instrument dealers Thomann and Music Store. Between December 21, 2014 and April 27, 2018, they made agreements on price increases for individual musical instruments or additional products in thirteen cases.
When setting the fine, it was taken into account that the companies Yamaha, Roland, Fender, Thomann and Music Store cooperated extensively in clarifying the agreements with the Federal Cartel Office (Music Store only in the procedure for vertical price fixing) and the procedure by amicable termination of the procedure (so-called . Settlement) could be concluded. The notices of fines are legally binding.
A case report with the content of Section 53 (5) GWB is published on the Bundeskartellamt's website [This invalid link has been removed] .
