Judgment of the Tribunal in relation to an appeal against a decision of the Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) entitled “Online resale price maintenance in the electronic drum sector” issued on 29 June 2020 (“the Decision”).
In the Decision, the CMA found that Roland (UK) Limited had infringed the prohibition in section 2(1) of the 1998 Act and/or Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union by engaging in online resale price maintenance (“RPM”) relating to electronic drumkits and associated products with a single UK distributor in the period from 7 January 2011 to 17 April 2018. The CMA imposed a penalty of £4,003,321 on Roland (UK) Limited jointly and severally with its ultimate parent company Roland Corporation (together “Roland”).
Roland filed a notice of appeal with the Tribunal raising two grounds of appeal.
- The 19% starting point was excessive. The CMA (i) overstated the seriousness of RPM generally, imposing a penalty that is on a par with the penalties it imposes for much more serious horizontal infringements, and (ii) failed to take account of the very narrow scope of the RPM that it actually found in the Decision.
- A 20% discount for leniency given by the CMA was inadequate. The discount for leniency given by the CMA was too low.
The CMA applied to revoke the settlement discount of 20% discount for the period 1 January 2013 to 17 April 2018.
For the reasons set out in the judgment, the Tribunal unanimously rejected Roland’s appeal and granted the CMA’s application. The penalty payable by Roland without the 20% settlement discount is £5,004,141.
