Japanese company Sanrio, which owns the Hello Kitty franchise, was fined €6.2 million (US$6.94 million) by EU antitrust regulators on Tuesday, July 9, for preventing cross-border sales of its products in Europe.
The European Commission, which started an investigation into the company and several others two years ago, stated that Sanrio’s non-exclusive licensing agreements breached EU antitrust rules. The anti-competitive practices occurred from January 2008 to December 2018.
These included direct measures restricting out-of-territory sales by licensees and measures such as audits and not renewing contracts to encourage compliance with the curbs.
Full Content: Reuters
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