Yoox fined 5.25 million by the Antitrust for misleading prices
The Antitrust fined Yoox Net-a-Porter for a total of 5.25 million euros per misleading prices and limits on the right of withdrawal. The incorrect behaviors took place between 2019 and 2022, reads a note from the Authority whose intervention “is part of the activity of enforcement to ensure correct ed balanced development of e-commerce”.
In particular, he specifies l’Antitrustthe company unilaterally canceled online orders already completed by consumers if certain return thresholds were exceeded, simultaneously omitting the information on the blocking of purchases. It also misrepresented the selling prices of the products and the discounts actually applied. As for the first practice, according to the Authority, a specific internal company policy has emerged which provides – without informing consumers before or after – the inhibition of the possibility of making further purchases in the event of exceeding certain return thresholdsthus limiting the right of withdrawal.
With reference to the second practice, however, the Authority considered that Yoox induced consumers to subscribe to their online offers son the basis of the presentation of misleading prices and discounts. For example, it has been ascertained that, before February 1, 2022, as a result of frequent repricingthe discounted final price of some products – on the occasion of particular promotions – resulted substantially analogous at the price actually charged in the period preceding the promotion, as it was modified the reference price against which the discount was then applied. After 1 February 2022, on the other hand, the reference price against which the discounts were applied was not the price actually applied by Yoox, but an amount representative of the presumed price of market applied in shops of the houses of moda.
In this way, offer conditions (reference price and discounts) were envisaged that were more advantageous than those actually ever practised. During the proceeding, Yoox indicated the sale price and any discounts applied more clearly. Within 60 days, Yoox must inform the Authority of the initiatives taken to overcome the critical elements highlighted in the sanctioning provision.
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