Rolex Fined $100 Million For Thwarting Online Watch Sales

Rolex received a fine of approximately $100 million from the French antitrust agency for pursuing an illegal chain of distributors who were selling the Swiss brand’s luxury watches online for more than a decade.

The Authorite de la Concurrence had denied the justifications from the French unit of Rolex that the online ban “was justified by the need to combat counterfeiting and parallel trade.”

The violations are quite “serious, as they amount to closing a marketing channel, to the detriment of consumers and retailers, when the online distribution of luxury products, including watches, has been booming over the past 15 years,” the regulator had said in a statement on Tuesday.

The penalty comes along with an order for the French unit to inform the retailers of this decision and to publish a full summary of it on their website within just two months and for seven back-to-back days. The decision is followed by industry raids and complaints from the authorities. Rolex had declined any comment over this decision. The regulator had said that it founded Rolex France equally liable with Rolex SA, Rolex Holding SA, and the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation.

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