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The European Commission has fined Gucci, Chloé, and Loewe over 157 million euros for anti-competitive pricing practices

MILAN — MILAN (AP) — The European Commission has fined luxury fashion houses Gucci, Chloé and Loewe over 157 million euros (nearly $183 million) for anti-competitive practices restricting independent retailers’ ability to set prices for their luxury goods.

The commission said the companies’ fixing of resale prices breached the bloc’s competition rules, and harmed consumers.

“The decision sends a strong signal to the fashion industry and beyond that we will not tolerate this kind of practice in Europe, and that fair competition and consumer protection apply to everyone, equally,’’ Commission Vice President Teresa Ribera said in a statement on Tuesday.

Gucci owner Kering acknowledged the decision “related to past commercial practices” and said in a statement that “a cooperative procedure” allowed “for a swifter resolution of the case.” Gucci’s fine was cut in half to nearly 120 million euros for its cooperation revealing additional breaches, the commission said. Kering said funds were set aside for the fine in the first-half of 2025.

Chloé owner Richemont and Loewe owner LVMH did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Loewe’s fine was halved to 18 million euros for its cooperation and Chloé’s fine was reduced by 15% to nearly 20 million euros.

The commission said that the three brands restricted the ability of independent retailers to set their own prices for high-end apparel, leather goods, footwear and accessories sold both online and in physical stores.

The brands required the retailers to stick to recommended retail prices, set maximum discount rates as well as periods for sales, mirroring practices in the brands’ own direct sales channels.

The practices “deprived the retailers of their pricing independence and reduced competition between them,” the commission said.

UK regulators will speed up bonus payouts for high-earning bankers, watering down another key change introduced in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

Since 2015 senior bankers have had to wait eight years before receiving their full bonuses to ensure individuals could be held financially accountable for any wrongdoing that came to light years later, or even after they left the bank.

On Wednesday the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said they were halving that to four years.

The watchdogs also went further than a previous consultation, saying they would now require a much smaller proportion of bonuses to be withheld from high-earning staff over the period. From Thursday, only 60% of the payout that falls above £660,000 will have to be deferred.

The decision, which will be welcomed by the City, marks yet another rollback of post-financial crisis rules after the UK formally scrapped a banker bonus cap two years ago that limited bonuses to two times bankers’ salaries.

The FCA and the Bank’s Prudential Regulation Authority, which have argued that the reduced deferral periods still provide enough time for any problems to surface, said the change would bring the UK “more closely in line with many other major jurisdictions”. In the EU, bankers’ bonuses are typically deferred for three to five years, while the US has no such restrictions.

The PRA’s chief executive, Sam Woods, said: “These new rules will cut red tape without encouraging the reckless pay structures that contributed to the 2008 financial crisis. These changes are the latest example of our commitment to boosting UK competitiveness.”

Deferred bonus rules have been used to punish high-profile cases of wrongdoing in the City. Barclays froze and later cancelled £18m worth of pay and bonuses for its former chief executive Jes Staley, who resigned in 2021 after the FCA launched an investigation into his links to Jeffrey Epstein. Staley was later found to have misled the watchdog over his relationship to the former financier and sex offender.

Efforts to relax bonus rules are part of a wider drive to cut red tape across the City, with the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, having claimed in her Mansion House speech in July that regulations were acting like as a “boot on the neck” of businesses and risked “choking off” innovation.

She has put pressure on watchdogs, including the Bank and FCA, to further loosen rules in hopes of boosting economic growth.