Mariage Frères has received a €4m ($4.3m) fine from France’s competition authority for practices it said “constitute a cartel”.
The move follows an investigation by France’s General Directorate for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention which found the tea group placed prohibitions on where distributors could sell its brands.
It said the tea manufacturer and wholesaler had “hindered” distributors and retail partners for 15 years by not allowing them to sell its brands online.
Mariage Frères also blocked its distributors from reselling to other resellers.
The French watchdog noted these practices “deprived” end consumers from getting better prices and impacted competition among its distributors…
