Fixing prices doesn’t fix competition – Danish online platform found to restrict competition by agreeing on fixed prices
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Autobutler ApS (“Autobutler”), an online platform that allows car owners to obtain offers for repair or maintenance services from various repair shops, has been found to restrict competition in the market for repair and maintenance of motor vehicles by engaging in price-fixing agreements in at least nine different cases with hundreds of repair shops. The conduct was found to have taken place in the period from March 2016 to October 2021.
The investigation was initiated in January 2021 by the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority ("DCCA") in response to a consumer having received ten identical offers from individual repair shops on Autobutler’s platform.
Based on the evidence obtained during a dawn raid at Autobutler, the DCCA concluded that Autobutler had entered into vertical, bilateral agreements with the individual repair shops, ensuring that individual garages would all offer identical prices for certain types of repairs. The DCCA considered that these vertical agreements entered into between Autobutler and the repair shops had an effect on the horizontal relationship between the individual repair shops, as it was the prices offered by these that the agreement impacted.
On 28 June 2023, the Danish Competition Council ("DCC") issued a decision stating that the practice of establishing fixed prices among the repair shops on Autobutler’s platform had restricted competition to the detriment of consumers. As a result, the DCC imposed an injunction on Autobutler to cease its restrictive conduct.
Further, the DCCA will proceed with the case to determine a possible fine.
This decision is relevant as a contribution to the interpretation of Article 6 of the Danish Competition Act (the Danish equivalent to Article 101(1) TFEU). In particular, the decision makes it clear that an agreement, which has as its object fixing prices between competitors, constitutes a restriction by object.
Moreover, the DCC concludes that even though the price fixing by Autobutler may in certain cases have led to repair shops lowering their prices and to lower transaction costs, it cannot benefit from the Danish equivalent to Article 101(3) TFEU, already as it has also in some cases led to higher prices for consumers.
The decision by the DCC can be found here (in Danish).
For more information, please contact Morten Nissen, Alexander Brøchner or Nanna Sofie Krabbe.
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