France’s competition authority, the equivalent of the US Justice Department’s anti-trust division, has fined Rolex €91.6m (£80m) for blocking its authorized dealers from selling new watches online .
Rolex has a global policy of only selling its watches through official jewelry stores, with the online store only being used to market new watches.
Rolex does not sell directly to consumers online or through physical stores.
The French authority rejected a plea from Rolex’s lawyers that restrictions were needed to prevent counterfeits and parallel trade in Rolex watches.
For a decade, Rolex was accused of restrictive practices that prevented its partners from selling online.
The watchmaker successfully defended its practice of enforcing recommended retail prices to its retailers, with the authority acknowledging that preventing the sale of counterfeit Rolex watches and gray market trading were legitimate commercial objectives.
However, the decision noted that Rolex’s competitors did not use the same tactics despite similar risks.
The French competition authority launched its investigation into Rolex back in 2017 following complaints from Union de la Bijouterie Horlogerie and Pellegrin & Fils.
This led to a raid on Rolex’s French offices in 2019.
Pellegrin & Fils, a former Rolex AD, said it was excluded from the partner network in 2013 without explanation.
The retailer’s lawyers said the “eviction” came after it tried to persuade Rolex to allow it to sell its watches online and suggested deregistering the company to serve as an example to other partners and them to keep in line.
Rolex declined to comment but may appeal to the Paris Court of Appeal.
