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EU investigates price fixing Austrian ski brands
 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead

Bad news for the credibility of the Austrian Ski industry


The European Commission, together with the Austrian competition authorities, has carried out unexpected searches at major ski brands such as Blizzard, Atomic and Fischer.

The reason: a suspicion of illegal price fixing.

The Problem (maybe)?

The EU suspects that some ski manufacturers have made illegal price agreements, which prevented fair competition.

Such cartel agreements ensure that consumers may pay too much for their skis, because manufacturers no longer compete with each other on price.

The European Commission emphasizes that the investigation is still at an early stage

Brands

Reports mention famous Austrian brand name , Blizzard (Italian Tecnica Group), Atomic ( Finnish Amer Sports) a real Austrian family business Fischer, among others, are the subject of investigation.

The companies are fully cooperating with the authorities and emphasize that they have always complied with the law.

EU consequences?

If it turns out that there is actually a cartel, the fines can be substantial €€€€€€€€€€: up to ten percent of the worldwide annual turnover.

There could also be possible claims for damages from customers and reputational damage for the brands.

You can imagine this is a very sensitive subject for the Austrian economy: more than half of all skis sold worldwide come from Austria, and the sports sector accounts for more than 24 billion euros in sales per year.

Next

The European Commission indicates that such investigations take time . Competition investigations can take 2 to 4 years and with any appeals could add another 1 to 3 years.

There is a Hotline for whistleblowers who want to report possible wrongdoing anonymously.

For the time being, this has no direct consequences for skiers, but the research may eventually affect the price and supply of skis in Europe.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


The EU should also do such an investigation into the pricing of ski passes, ski & boot rental In recent years, they have also been very suspiciously similar. !!!
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