MILAN, Dec 10 (Reuters) – The Italian competition authority said on Tuesday it had opened two parallel investigations into Swiss watchmaker Swatch and Japan’s Citizen Watch.
The probes involve an alleged infringement of European rules on the fixing of retail prices displayed online by the groups’ authorised distributors.
The two companies may be limiting price competition among their retailers through a vertical agreement by imposing retail prices on their distributors and adopting “retaliatory commercial measures” against those that fail to comply, the antitrust authority said in a statement.
The agency’s officials carried out inspections at the Italian offices of Swatch and Citizen on December 3.
Swatch confirmed that Italian authorities had visited its premises to obtain information regarding a possible non-compliant practice on price procedures for its Tissot Italy and Mido Italy brands.
A Swatch statement said the company was “fully cooperating and participating in this procedure and wants to shed complete light on this potential violation of Tissot Italy and Mido Italy.”
Citizen said in a statement that it was fully confident in its compliance with applicable regulations.
The company added it aims to “cooperate at every stage of the investigation, so that all elements can be thoroughly examined and assessed in a comprehensive and transparent manner.”
(Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro; Editing by Gavin Jones, Joe Bavier and Chizu Nomiyama )
