The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) has issued Samsung a fine for exercising undue influence on the online retail price of TV sets at as many as seven retailers.
The authority says that Samsung attempted to counteract the trend of TV prices dropping shortly after being introduced to the market by coordinating prices with retailers between January 2013 and December 2018. The electronics maker has been fined €39 million.
“Samsung monitored the online retail prices of retailers in an automated manner using so-called web crawlers. If Samsung saw prices that were lower than its desired market price, it contacted those retailers and urged them to increase their prices,” the ACM reported.
The ACM discovered this in WhatsApp messages and emails it collected in dawn raids. In those messages Samsung was found to be telling retailers to increase prices.
“As Samsung constantly informed these retailers, they knew that they would not price themselves out of the market if they followed Samsung’s price. In that way, Samsung unduly intervened directly in the competition between retailers,” wrote the ACM.
The authority says that while suppliers can give retailers non-binding price recommendations, telling retailers to set prices is a step too far.
Retailers were also not entirely without fault, however. The ACM says that retailers would often complain to Samsung about the retail price of TVs from competitors. Rather than doing nothing, which it should have, Samsung would approach those competitors and request prices be changed.
