When The Gloves Come Off: Member Of Chain Of Independent Clothes Stores To Be Fined Directly By The Danish Competition Authority Under New Powers

• Published date: 25 August 2022
• Subject Matter: nti-trust/Competition Law, Antitrust, EU Competition
• Law Firm: Bird & Bird
• Author: Mr Alexander Br'chner and Morten Nissen

The Danish Competition Council ("the DCC") has recently found that a voluntary chain in the textile industry, Boligtextilbranchens Indk'bsservice A.M.B.A. ("Botex"), infringed Article 6 of the Danish Competition Act concerning anti-competitive agreements by agreeing that individual members of Botex were not allowed to distribute advertisements to households in areas assigned to other members.

Botex is a nationwide, voluntary chain of textile resellers, consisting of 24 independent members, each of which owns shares in Botex as well as one or more Botex stores.

In the rules governing trade within Botex, it was agreed that each member was assigned a "marketing area" defined by postal codes and that members were not allowed to distribute advertisements to households in the areas assigned to other members. This agreement was in place for more than 12 years between May 2009 and August 2021.

The DCC considered that the ban on advertising constituted a horizontal market-sharing agreement between competitors. Moreover, the DCC found that this constituted a 'by object' restriction of competition.

The DCC...