Premium headphones: Federal Cartel Office fines Sennheiser millions
The cartel watchdogs have imposed fines totaling almost six million euros on Sennheiser, Sonova and three managers for illegal price fixing.
(Image: Tobias Arhelger/Shutterstock.com)
Sennheiser has kept sales prices for high-end headphones high for many years in unauthorized agreements with dealers. This was the conclusion reached by the German Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) following an investigation and a raid in September 2022 on the manufacturer of studio and transmission technology headquartered in Wedemark near Hanover. The Bonn-based authority has therefore imposed fines totaling almost six million euros on Sennheiser, the German subsidiary of Swiss hearing aid manufacturer Sonova and three responsible managers.
Sonova took over Sennheiser's consumer electronics division in March 2022 and, according to the antitrust watchdogs, continued the infringements in a watered-down form until the search a few months later.
In addition to the usual negotiations on purchase prices with German authorized dealers, Sennheiser employees had also taken coordination measures on sales prices for premium headphones to end consumers since at least 2015, the Cartel Office announced on Wednesday. The company had "continuously monitored" the dealers' offers, using special software in addition to price comparison services on the Internet. As a rule, after interventions by Sennheiser, the sellers are said to have agreed to increase the objectionable end consumer prices if, for example, they fell below the recommended retail price (RRP). Internally, a special code language was used for the measures.
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When setting the fines, the cartel investigators stated that they took into account the fact that Sennheiser and Sonova cooperated extensively and that the proceedings could be concluded by mutual agreement. The penalty notices are therefore also legally binding. The Cartel Office did not impose any fines on the retailers involved "for reasons of discretion".
Free pricing restricted
"Sennheiser restricted free pricing in the sale of premium headphones over a long period of time," criticized the President of the Bundeskartellamt, Andreas Mundt. Employees of the manufacturer had even undergone antitrust training. However, they had used the knowledge gained "to conceal the price fixing". This shows "that compliance measures in companies must not only be implemented, but also lived". The authority intends to publish a detailed case report shortly.
(vbr)
