Resale price maintenance: Commission fines Chloé, Gucci and Loewe over €157M
On 14 October 2025, the European Commission (the “Commission”) issued fines totalling over €157M to the three fashion companies Gucci, Chloé and Loewe for restricting resellers’ pricing independence. The practices involved so-called resale price maintenance (“RPM”), i.e. the companies prevented their distributors from setting prices independently, thereby limiting competition in the luxury fashion retail market. The decision sends a clear message about the importance of maintaining competitive pricing practices also for luxury brands.
Background
Gucci, Chloé and Loewe are all high-end fashion companies that design, manufacture and distribute clothes, leather goods, accessories and various other products. They sell their respective products both through their own stores and websites and through distributors. Such structure is called dual distribution.
On 18 April 2023, the European Commission (the “Commission”) carried out dawn raids at their premises. Around a year later, in June 2024, the Commission opened formal proceedings.
During the investigation, the Commission found that all three companies had engaged in RPM. This means that they had restricted their distributors’ ability to alter prices independently. According to the Commission, the three fashion companies had required their retailers not to deviate from: (i) recommended retail prices; (ii) maximum discounts rates; and (iii) specific periods for sales. In certain cases, and at least temporarily, they also prohibited retailers from offering any discounts. Gucci, Chloé and Loewe strived to have their retailers apply the same prices and sales conditions they applied in their own direct sales channels. The three companies monitored the retailers’ prices and followed up with deviating retailers to ensure compliance. The retailers in general adhered to the companies’ pricing policies, either from the start or after being requested to do so. These practices restricted retailers of their ability to independently price their products, thus reducing competition between them. In addition, Gucci imposed online sales restrictions for a specific product line by asking its retailers to stop selling the product online. Gucci’s retailers complied with these instructions. While the three companies acted independently of each other, the duration of the three cases overlaps and many of the retailers concerned sell products designed by all three companies. The infringements covered the whole territory of the European Economic Area. The pricing practices dated back to 2015 for Gucci and Loewe and 2019 for Chloé.
Legal framework
Agreements between companies that harm competition are prohibited by Article 101 TFEU. Vertical agreements (agreements between e.g. suppliers and distributors) are generally seen as less harmful to competition than horizontal agreements (agreements between competitors). Many of these agreements are therefore exempted from enforcement through the Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (the “VBER”).
Suppliers can generally recommend retail prices to distributors, provided the distributors can choose different prices. Pricing freedom is a core element of competition. Article 4 of the VBER categorizes RPM infringements as so-called ’hard core restrictions’ which are agreements banned because they may be particularly harmful to competition.
The fine
On 14 October 2025, the Commission issued an infringement decision imposing fines on the three companies totalling €157M. The total amount of fines was initially set to around €298M, the amount was however lowered due to the infringing companies’ cooperation with the Commission in the investigation. The fine against Gucci was halved since the company revealed infringements previously unknown to the Commission, and Loewe’s cooperation allowed the Commission to better understand the length in time of the infringement, which also merited a reduction by 50 % whereas Chloé obtained a reduction with 15 %. All three fashion companies cooperated by expressly acknowledging the facts and their infringements of EU antitrust rules.
Concluding remarks
The fashion industry, and especially the high-end segment, has faced similar scrutiny before. Luxury brands often rely on selective distribution systems to safeguard their brand image, which is permissible under the VBER. However, RPM and unjustified online sales restrictions remain hardcore restrictions under EU competition law, regardless of the product category or market positioning.
The Commission’s decision underlines that compliance expectations apply equally to premium and mass-market products and to online and brick-and-mortar sales. Even in sectors where competition is driven more by brand, quality, and design than by price, RPM and online restrictions are considered serious infringements.
Companies should therefore ensure that their distribution and pricing structures fully comply with EU competition rules. Our competition law specialists at Delphi closely follow developments in this area and can provide practical guidance on how to mitigate risk and prepare for potential scrutiny by the Commission or the Swedish Competition Authority.