The European Commission has sanctioned Sanrio, a Japanese company famous for Hello Kitty products, for violating EU competition rules.
Investigations revealed that the company had introduced restrictions aimed at prohibiting license holders in the territory of a Member State from selling the products also in the territories of other Member States.
These clauses also provided for the obligation to report sales orders not from the territory of competence to Sanrio and imposed restrictions on the languages used on the products.
If the licensees had not complied with the restrictions, Sanrio would have prevented the renewal of the contract. After two years of investigation, the Commission found that the licence agreements granted by Sanrio infringed EU competition rules.
The decision confirms that traders who sell licensed products cannot be banned from selling the products in a different country because these restrictions mean that consumers have less choice and sometimes a higher price.