Rolex has been fined about $100 million by France’s antitrust agency for a decade-long illegal crackdown on distributors selling the Swiss company’s luxury watches online.
The Autorite de la Concurrence rejected arguments by Rolex’s French unit that an online ban was “justified by the need to combat counterfeiting and parallel trade.”
The violations are “serious because they amount to the closure of a marketing channel, to the detriment of consumers and retailers, at a time when online sales of luxury goods, including watches, have been booming for the past 15 years,” the regulator said in a statement Tuesday.
The fine comes with an order for the French unit to notify its retailers of the decision and publish a summary of it on its website within two months and for seven consecutive days. The decision follows industry complaints and raids by the authority.
Rolex declined to comment on the ruling.
The regulator said it had found Rolex France jointly liable with Rolex Holding SA, Rolex SA and the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation.
