Six luxury cosmetic wholesalers fined €19M for collusion by Greek competition watchdog

Athens: The Hellenic Competition Commission has fined six wholesale luxury cosmetics brands nearly €19 million for collusion to fix resale and discount prices with retailers.

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Estee Lauder's Greek branch was fined €5.4 million, while the subsidiaries of L'Oreal and Christian Dior received fines of €2.6 and €1.8 million respectively. Three Greek companies were also among the six fined.The Commission acted after investigating allegations that the luxury cosmetics wholesalers were agreeing on the discounts to be applied to their products when resold in shops and indirectly fixing prices as a result.L'Oréal Hellas and Greek cosmetics firm Sarantis have both announced their intentions to appeal.According to local media reports, Christian Dior could not be reached for comment, while Estee Lauder said in a statement it was “reviewing the authority’s decision with the intention to appeal.”