In its decision of 12 December 2017, the German Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof – BGH) dismissed ASICS’ application to appeal the 2017 judgment of the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court (OLG) on alleged online sales restrictions. The BGH confirmed that prohibiting the use of price comparison websites by retailers constitutes a hardcore restriction under EU competition law.
In 2015, the Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt – BKartA) found that ASICS’ selective ‘retail system 1.0’ (the system was launched as “Vertriebssystem 1.0”) contained hardcore restrictions under Article 4(c) of the Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (VBER). By introducing retail system 1.0, ASICS had allegedly requested approximately 2,000 retailers to refrain from advertising ASICS’ products via price comparison websites and prohibited the use of its brand names on third party websites redirecting customers to retailers’ online shops.Continue Reading German Bundeskartellamt’s Decision against Online Sales Restrictions by ASICS Ultimately Confirmed