Survey—Competition Law Enforcement in the Fashion and Luxury Sector

Abstract

Following the technological development and the increase of online sales triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic, the fashion and luxury industry has grown enormously, becoming the fourth largest sector of the global economy.1 With this development, the relevance of competition law and the awareness thereof has also increased significantly. The fashion and luxury industry has been facing increased exposure to competition law enforcement over the past years with significant impact on the sector’s business models.2 This survey sets out the European Commission’s (Commission) and national competition authorities’ (NCAs) enforcement practices of Article 101 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) with a focus on 2020–2022 and under consideration of the latest legislative changes (Section II). Article 101 TFEU prohibits anticompetitive agreements between competitors, referred to as horizontal agreements, as well as between companies operating at different levels of the distribution chain, referred to as vertical agreements. The focus is particularly on vertical agreements between brand owners and their distributors and resellers, as those agreements play a key role in the fashion and luxury industry. An overview of the recent decisional practice over the past 3 years is also provided with regard to Article 102 TFEU which prohibits the abuse of dominant position but which played so far no major role in the fashion and luxury industry (Section III). Section IV addresses the recent developments with regard to transactions subject to merger control rules in the fashion and luxury sector.