LEGO Group sentenced fine by French Competition Council
On Thursday, December 20, LEGO France SAS was sentenced a fine of €1.6m. by the French Competition Council.
Poul Hartvig, Head of Corporate Legal Affairs of the LEGO Group said:
“Our case is part of a large and complex group of cases. We will now look carefully into the decision and consider potential further actions.”
At the beginning of 2004, the French competition authorities investigated the French toy market for potential violations of French competition law. In the case of LEGO France, the accusation by the authorities was of fixing the resale price in agreement with certain retail customers. The activities, which have now been held to be illegal by the Competition Council, took place in 2001, 2002 and 2003.
“The LEGO Group has very clear policies in this area in order to ensure compliance with competition law and if necessary apply relevant internal sanctions”, Poul Hartvig said.
Since 1984, the LEGO Group has employed a Competition Compliance Programme, which has regularly been updated. An element of this programme is the training of relevant staff in competition law.