Danish car dealer association runs red light boycotting a digital platform
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The Danish Competition Council (“the DCC”) has, in a recent decision, found that the Danish Association of Peugeot Dealers infringed Article 6 of the Danish Competition Act and Article 101(1) TFEU by engaging in a collective boycott of the Danish platform for advertisement and sale of cars, Bilbasen.dk. The object of this collective boycott was to promote the competing digital platform for advertisement and sale of cars, Biltorvet.dk.
In April 2018, a dawn raid revealed e-mail correspondence and documents exchanged between individual car dealers of the Peugeot brand and board members of The Danish Association of Peugeot Dealers. The collected evidence disclosed that the independent car dealers, who were all members of The Danish Association of Peugeot Dealers, were instructed to refrain from advertising on Bilbasen.dk and to instead advertise on Biltorvet.dk only, leading to a collective boycott of Bilbasen.dk.
The DCC found that a collective boycott existed in this case, as this agreement constituted an agreement between a group of competitors to exclude an actual or potential competitor from a relevant market by not acquiring services from this competitor. The infringements were found to have occurred in the period from the end of 2012 to at least August 2014.
The DCC determined that the car dealers involved had entered into the agreement to limit competition on the Danish market for digital marketplaces for advertisement and sale of cars. Consequently, a “by object” violation of the prohibition against anti-competitive agreements.
The DCC also found that the decision within The Danish Association of Peugeot Dealers had not given rise to procompetitive effects and that the conditions for an exemption in accordance with Section 8(1) of the Danish Competition Act and Article 101(3) TFEU were not fulfilled.
Consequently, this recent decision demonstrates clearly that trade associations must remain focused on competition law compliance whenever commercial matters are discussed amongst members.
It is also worth noting that as digital platforms, inter alia, provide a better opportunity for businesses and consumers to find each other and deal in new ways, they both give consumers better access to compare prices and products from different sellers, and strengthen competition between companies. The collective boycott was therefore found to both have had a harmful effect on consumers (potential buyers of cars on Bilbasen.dk) and car sellers (advertising on Bilbasen.dk).
The DCC has reported The Danish Association of Peugeot Dealers to the State Prosecutor for Serious Economic and International Crime (now Special Crime Unit) seeking to fine The Danish Association of Peugeot Dealers for this infringement.
The press release by the Competition Council can be found here (in English)
For more information, please contact Morten Nissen or Alexander Brøchner.
