EXPOSED: Secret Price-Fixing Scheme by Sennheiser Leads to Multi-Million Euro Fines
Unlawful Agreements Result in Multi-Million Penalty for Sennheiser - Sennheiser faces a substantial penalty of one million dollars.
Chances are you've popped on a pair of Sennheiser headphones—but you may not have known that the company was caught red-handed in illegal price manipulation. Sennheiser, a leading audio product manufacturer, has been hit with fines totaling nearly €6 million for their covert price-fixing operation. The Federal Cartel Office broke the news, revealing that the company regularly influenced retailers to achieve inflated prices for their headphones.
Tracing back to at least 2015, Sennheiser has been monitoring the selling prices of its products like a hawk. Retailers not abiding by the suggested retail price (RRP) were given a stern nudge to adjust their prices. The Federal Cartel Office uncovered that Sennheiser's actions were far from accidental: employees were given antitrust training but chose to use this knowledge to hide their deceitful practices.
Three employees and the German subsidiary of Swiss hearing aid manufacturer Sonova also find themselves in hot water. Sonova snatched up Sennheiser's consumer business back in March 2022 and carried it on under the same banner. Unfortunately for them, the price-fixing practices didn't end with the takeover; they persisted until the Federal Cartel Office launched an investigation in September 2022.
To make matters worse, these illicit agreements continued to a lesser extent even after Sonova took the helm. The Federal Cartel Office warned that the days of manipulative pricing schemes are numbered and will not be tolerated.
Now, it's time for Sennheiser to dig deep and shell out a hefty sum to cover its errors.
- Sennheiser electronic
- Federal Cartel Office
- Headphones
- Multi-million Euro fine
- Price-fixing
- Germany
- Bonn
- Agreement
- Bundeskartellamt
- Hannover
- Antitrust training
- Sonova Consumer Hearing Sales Germany GmbH
- Illegal conduct concealment
- Coded language
- Sennheiser's covert price-fixing scheme, as exposed by the Federal Cartel Office, shows an alarming lack of corporate responsibility, resulting in a hefty multi-million Euro fine in Germany.
- Despite receiving antitrust training, employees at Sennheiser and Sonova Consumer Hearing Sales Germany GmbH continued using coded language and manipulative pricing agreements, even after the takeover, demonstrating an unacceptable disregard for the interests of consumers and businesses in the audio industry, technology, and finance sectors.
