CNMC Fines ICON Europe €1.2 Million & Bars It From Public Contracts for Five Months

Key Takeaways

• Years-Long Price Controls: ICON Europe fixed resale prices and imposed restrictive sales conditions across its distribution network between 2010 and 2024.
• Wholesale and Online Reach: The conduct affected wholesale distributors in the Canary and Balearic Islands and online retail sales nationwide.
• Active Policing of Distributors: The company monitored prices, demanded immediate corrections, and used threats and retaliation to enforce compliance.
• Marketplace Restrictions: ICON banned distributors from selling on Amazon while selling its own products on the platform through an intermediary.
• Sanctions With Teeth: Alongside a €1.2 million fine, the CNMC imposed a five-month ban on contracting with the public sector.

Deep Dive

Spain’s competition watchdog, the CNMC, has fined ICON €1.2 million and barred it from public-sector contracts for five months, concluding that the company ran a long-standing strategy to tightly control prices and commercial conditions in the professional hairdressing products market.

The decision, issued on January 12, 2026, follows an investigation into conduct spanning more than a decade, from 2010 to 2024. ICON Europe operates as a wholesaler of hairdressing and cosmetic products and also sells directly to consumers through its own website.

Price Fixing Across Wholesale and Retail Channels

According to the CNMC, ICON systematically fixed resale prices throughout its distribution network. In the wholesale channel, the practices were particularly entrenched in the Canary and Balearic Islands, where distribution contracts required wholesalers to respect sales prices set by ICON for professional hairdressing salons in their territories. This arrangement remained in place throughout the full 2010–2024 period examined by the authority.

At the retail level, the conduct extended nationwide, at least in the online channel, between 2017 and 2023. During this time, ICON required retailers to apply the company’s recommended retail prices, repeatedly circulating mandatory price lists and treating them as binding rather than advisory.

The CNMC found that price fixing was only one part of a broader set of restrictions imposed on distributors. ICON strictly limited the maximum discounts retailers could offer, including during promotions and campaigns. Retailers were also barred from selling ICON products on online marketplaces such as Amazon, confining sales to their own websites or physical showrooms.

In addition, distributors were prohibited from offering discount coupons or running their own promotions without explicit authorization from ICON, further narrowing their ability to compete on price or marketing.

Monitoring, Threats, and Retaliation

To enforce these rules, ICON actively monitored the websites of its retail distributors, checking prices and discounts for deviations from its instructions. When discrepancies were identified, distributors were required to correct them immediately. The CNMC also uncovered evidence of threats and retaliatory measures against distributors that failed to comply, underscoring what the authority described as the seriousness of the conduct.

The investigation further found that ICON encouraged coordinated responses among distributors when the CNMC requested information, behavior that the regulator said undermined the integrity of its investigative process.

One of the more striking findings involved ICON’s own conduct on Amazon. Despite prohibiting its distributors from selling ICON products on the platform, the company sold its own products there through an intermediary, Transparency Quality, SL. The CNMC said this arrangement was concealed both from the distribution network and from the authority itself during inspections.

Impact on Competition and Consumers

Taken together, the CNMC concluded that ICON’s strategy was aimed at maintaining absolute control over prices and commercial terms by eliminating competition among distributors of the same brand. The result was the widespread application of uniform and elevated retail prices, to the detriment of consumers, while also limiting the emergence or expansion of more efficient distribution models and sales channels.

For these practices, the CNMC imposed a total fine of €1,197,907 for two infringements of Article 1 of Spain’s Competition Defense Law. Of this amount, €637,907 relates to conduct affecting wholesale distributors in the Canary and Balearic Islands, while €560,000 concerns restrictions imposed on retail distributors, at least in the online channel, nationwide.

Beyond the financial penalty, the authority barred ICON from contracting with the public sector across Spain for five months for any supply of hair care products, whether at wholesale level or through online retail. The CNMC noted that this marks only the second time it has directly determined both the scope and duration of a prohibition on public-sector contracting, signaling a more assertive use of this sanction.

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