The Office Imposed a Fine of CZK 20 Million on the Furniture Chain XXXLUTZ for Failing to Meet its Commitments
In 2019, XLCEE-Holding GmbH filed an application for approval of a concentration between undertakings with the Office to acquire exclusive control of Kika Nábytek s.r.o. and Lambda Properties Czechia s.r.o. The party to the proceedings operated furniture and home accessories retail stores under the XXXLutz and Möbelix brands, while Kika and Lambda operated in this area under the Kika brand. This was a part of a broader transaction that also involved Kika's activities in Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.
As, in the first phase of the administrative proceedings, the Office identified serious competition concerns in relation to this concentration within the territory of the Pilsen Region, the acquirer offered commitments to eliminate possible anticompetitive impacts. In particular, it was an obligation to sell one retail store in the region in question to an entity independent of the acquirer in terms of ownership, finances and personnel. The Office these commitments and made them subject to the clearance of the concentration.
As XLCEE-Holding GmbH failed to meet the commitments, the Office initiated the administrative proceedings to check the steps taken by the undertaking and concluded that it had not been sufficiently active in its efforts to fulfil the commitments. For this reason, XLCEE-Holding GmbH was imposed the above mentioned fine.
When imposing the fine, the Office considered the fact that the search for a potential buyer and the implementation of the process of selling the stores (= bringing the sale process to a successful conclusion) to a specific buyer could have been disrupted by the situation related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Press Unit of the Office for the Protection of Competition
23/068 – S0404/2021
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