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EU: Sanrio hit with fine for cross-border sales curbs

By  |  July 9, 2019

Japanese company Sanrio, which owns the Hello Kitty franchise, was fined €6.2 million (US$6.94 million) by EU antitrust regulators on Tuesday, July 9, for preventing cross-border sales of its products in Europe.

The European Commission, which started an investigation into the company and several others two years ago, stated that Sanrio’s non-exclusive licensing agreements breached EU antitrust rules. The anti-competitive practices occurred from January 2008 to December 2018.

These included direct measures restricting out-of-territory sales by licensees and measures such as audits and not renewing contracts to encourage compliance with the curbs.

Full Content: Reuters

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