Paris, Nov 8 (AFP/APP):France’s competition authority Tuesday slapped Lensmaker Essilor International and its parent company with 81.1 million euros ($81.6 million) in fines for a decade of discriminatory trade practices against online spectacles vendors.
The authority said it was handing down the fine for practices between April 2009 and December 2020 which amounted to Essilor seeking to “hinder the development of online sales” of corrective lenses in France, notably via delivery and guarantee restrictions.
Some 15.4 million euros of the fines were attributed to parent company EssilorLuxottica SA, which owns luxury sunglasses and eyeglasses brand Ray-Ban.
EssilorLuxottica SA said it would appeal the decision.
“EssilorLuxottica firmly believes in its practices’ legality and in the relevancy of distributing specific segments of prescription products under conditions that enable us to ensure that consumers can get the best vision correction that is required by their individual vision needs,” the company said in a statement in English.
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