Dutch watchdog ACM assists Romanian competition authority with investigation into Nike, raids head offices

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Nike in Madrid Credits: Nike.

Dutch market watchdog Authority for Consumers & Markets is supporting the Romanian competition authority in an investigation into possible anti-competitive agreements in the world of sportswear. As part of the investigation, raids were carried out at the head offices in the Netherlands and Romania, according to a document from Consiliul Concurenței România.

In the Netherlands, a raid was carried out on the headquarters of Nike European Operations Netherlands BV - the supplier of Nike brand products; in Romania, the headquarters of Sport Time Trad SRL and Sport Vision Trading SRL were raided.

Consiliul Concurenței România suspects that the supplier of Nike-branded products has made agreements with Sport Time Trade SRL, the distributor of the branded products, to limit the customers to whom it can sell the products, the document states.

“In certain circumstances, each distributor must determine its own commercial strategy. The supplier cannot determine which customers its buyers serve,” the Romanian Competition Authority said.

The raids by Consiliul Concurenței România, supported by the ACM, are an important phase in the procedures for investigating possible anti-competitive behaviour, according to the market watchdogs.

National competition authorities regularly cooperate to detect and prevent infringements of competition rules. The market watchdogs can ask each other for help within the European Union.

This article originally appeared on FashionUnited.NL, translated and edited to English.

It was translated using an AI tool.

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