Court of Justice of the European Union

Luxury goods retailers may choose their distributors

On 6 December 2017, the Court of Justice of the European Union issued a long-awaited judgement in the Coty case. The subject matter of the dispute between a supplier of luxury cosmetics, Coty Germany GmbH, and its authorised distributor, Parfümerie Akzente GmbH, was a contractual ban on using contractual products of third-party platforms for Internet sales. The court had to adjudicate whether such an established system of selective distribution breached in the specific instance the EU regulations protecting fair competition.