Setting up a distribution chain that enables broad availability of products while equally maintaining a high quality of pre-contractual service is a major challenge. Online sales serve the first goal but could impair pursuit of the latter. Furthermore, the viability of on-site sales could be undermined when other market players predominantly or exclusively sell online. Attempts to interfere with distribution channels and pricing strategies of your distribution partners could be a direct path to antitrust liability.

The recent activities of the Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) are a good illustration of this. At the beginning of January, UOKiK announced that it had fined a pet food distributor for allegedly imposing minimum resale prices for online sales on its partners. This is said to have robbed customers of the opportunity to purchase the pet food at competitive prices. The fined undertaking allegedly exerted pressure on partners who deviated from the agreed prices, at times at the request of those partners who complied. The fine imposed on the undertaking by UOKIK was relatively low – about EUR 80 000. However, two managers were also given individual fines, which must have been a bitter pill to swallow.

Currently another investigation into alleged price fixing is under way – this time regarding wholesale of bathroom fittings. UOKiK’s press release about this case gives details strangely reminiscent of the case described above: alleged imposition of minimum prices for online sales, measures taken to pressure partners into complying, and requests from some partners to intervene. … The bringing of charges does not however determine the outcome of the investigation, and thus we will have to wait some time to see whether the allegations are substantiated.

Undertakings active in Poland or wishing to enter the Polish market need to bear in mind that interference with distributors’ autonomy bears significant antitrust risk. Even an ostensibly legitimate goal might prove inadequate grounds for certain actions. Meanwhile, some vertical restraints may be subject to a block exemption from the general ban on anticompetitive agreements. Expertise and acumen are however indispensable to assess each case of this kind – consulting an antitrust lawyer is highly advisable.