A complaint by a company active in the parquet flooring trade prompted the AFCA to launch investigations into an Austrian parquet flooring manufacturer around the turn of 2023/2024. The allegations essentially concerned the setting of resale prices to end customers, what the retailer considered to be the unjustified termination of the contractual relationship, as well as other potentially discriminatory practices.
In spring 2024, the AFCA interviewed the former head of sales and another employee of the complainant company. The information obtained initially substantiated the initial suspicion. The AFCA therefore applied to the Cartel Court for a dawn raid, which was ordered by the Vienna Higher Regional Court sitting as the Cartel Court.
Dawn raid
During the dawn raid conducted in October 2024, numerous physical documents and electronic data were seized. Their subsequent analysis revealed indications that, in the past, prescribed resale prices for parquet flooring had been enforced vis-à-vis retailers.
The AFCA additionally interviewed former senior employees of the parquet flooring manufacturer concerned and sent requests for information to several customers in order to establish the specific extent of the possible infringement.
Ultimately, the resale price requirements described above could only be established in individual re-gions of Austria for the period from 2009 to 2016. The legal provisions applicable at the time had to be applied to the possible infringements. Under those provisions, the infringements became absolutely time-barred upon expiry of the five-year limitation period. As the limitation period had therefore already expired by the end of 2021, the AFCA discontinued its investigation. The parquet flooring manufacturer concerned was informed that the investigation had been discontinued.
Background: limitation period
The Cartel and Competition Law Amendment Act 2017 (KaWeRÄG 2017), which entered into force on 1 May 2017, introduced for the first time the possibility of interrupting the limitation period by means of an investigative measure taken by the AFCA and brought to the attention of the company concerned. KaWeRÄG 2017 also introduced an absolute limitation period of ten years. Prior to the entry into force of KaWeRÄG 2017, infringements became time-barred after only five years, with no possibility of interrupting the limitation period.