“Everyone has a Rolex!” If you don’t have a Rolex at 50, you still missed out on life.”, estimated the great advertiser Jacque Séguéla, in defense of the taste for pomp of his great friend Nicolas Sarkozy, then president of the French Republic in 2009. However, the Swiss watchmaker voluntarily tries to cultivate a certain form of exclusivity, which derives from the sanction France. The Competition Authority, in fact, has just sanctioned Rolex for having prohibited its distributors, for more than ten years, from selling Rolex watches online.
The French Competition Authority fines Rolex 91,600,000 euros
The Swiss watchmaker has defended the ban imposed on its retailers from marketing its watches online in the name of fighting counterfeiting. Except that the big competing watchmakers have done very well, a sign that this is largely possible, according to the French competition authority which explains it in a statement. For this reason it has just imposed a fine of 91,600,000 euros against Rolex France SAS, accompanied by a communication and publication injunction. In case you want to treat yourself to a Rolex before the age of 50 (count anyway to a minimum €6000), now it will be possible online…
Where will these 91,600,000 euros go? 3 questions to the AGCM
And if you’re wondering where the money from this fine will go, to miss asked the question directly to Maxence Lepinoy, Communications Officer, Head of Media Relations at the Competition Authority.
“From the official notification of the decision to Rolex, the Swiss watchmaker will then have two months to pay this fine”, he explains to us. Rolex could appeal to the Paris Court of Appeal: “The latter could then take months, or even years, to confirm or reverse our decision, and Rolex would then be refunded. »
Meanwhile, these 91,600,000 euros paid by Rolex will not end up in the coffers of the Competition Authority, but “directly to Bercy who will redistribute to the general state budget for distribution in different envelopes such as schools or hospitals”.
Nothing will therefore go to the authorized distributors who until now had been prevented from selling Rolexes online, concludes Maxence Lepinoy to miss : “Our role is not to try to compensate injured parties but to fight against anti-competitive practices and monitor merger operations. It is not uncommon for parties to turn to civil courts for relief, but this does not concern us. »
As for the sum of 91,600,000 euros, it is calculated based on the severity of the practice, its duration, the company involved, its turnover and the market in question. Rolex therefore certainly has a strong enough backbone to pay this fine.
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Source: Madmoizelle
Mary Crossley is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. She is a seasoned journalist who is dedicated to delivering the latest news to her readers. With a keen sense of what’s important, Mary covers a wide range of topics, from politics to lifestyle and everything in between.
