Italy’s Competition Authority Hits Morellato With €25 Million Fine Over Online Sales Restrictions

Key Takeaways

• Enforcement Focus on Pricing Controls: The authority found that setting maximum discounts for online sales amounted to resale price maintenance, restricting distributors’ ability to compete independently.
• Active Monitoring and Retaliation: Morellato enforced compliance through ongoing price monitoring, warnings, order blocks, and threats of termination, reinforcing the anti-competitive nature of the conduct.
• Marketplace Restrictions Under Scrutiny: Prohibiting distributors from selling on third-party platforms while continuing to use those platforms itself raised concerns around discriminatory and disproportionate restrictions.
• Breach of EU Competition Law: The conduct was found to violate Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union by limiting competition and distributor autonomy.

Deep Dive

Italy’s antitrust regulator has taken aim at one of the country’s best-known jewellery brands, handing Morellato a €25,895,043 fine for a long-running set of distribution practices that, in the authority’s view, crossed the line from brand control into outright restriction of competition.

In a decision that stretches back more than seven years, the Italian Competition Authority found that Morellato tightly managed how its authorised retailers priced and sold products online, shaping not just the brand experience but the competitive dynamics of its entire distribution network.

According to the authority, Morellato didn’t simply offer guidance on pricing, it set the outer limits.

Authorized jewelers were effectively told how much they could discount products sold online, with the company issuing specific indications on acceptable discount levels. In practice, that left retailers with little room to compete on price, particularly in digital channels where discounting is often a key lever.

The regulator concluded that this amounted to resale price maintenance, a well-established breach of EU competition rules when it constrains a distributor’s ability to set its own prices.

Enforcement With Teeth

What turned policy into enforcement, the authority suggests, was how actively Morellato monitored and intervened.

The company tracked pricing across its distribution network and responded when retailers stepped outside the lines. That response was not merely advisory. It included warnings, demands to remove discounts, and more direct commercial pressure such as blocking orders or restricting access to Amazon accounts. In some cases, distributors were reportedly threatened with termination.

Taken together, these actions painted a picture of a system where pricing discipline was not optional.

Drawing a Hard Line on Marketplaces

The case also zeroed in on Morellato’s approach to online marketplaces.

Its distribution agreements explicitly barred authorized sellers from using third-party platforms like Amazon or eBay. The authority found that this restriction was actively enforced, with breaches met by the same mix of warnings and retaliatory measures.

What made this aspect particularly striking, however, was the asymmetry. While restricting its distributors, Morellato itself continued to sell through those same platforms. That imbalance, the authority found, further distorted competition within the network.

Where Brand Control Meets Competition Law

Ultimately, the authority concluded that Morellato’s conduct amounted to a vertical agreement in breach of Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

By combining pricing constraints with marketplace restrictions, the company limited how distributors could compete and curtailed their commercial independence, two outcomes that sit squarely at odds with EU competition principles.

The decision lands at a time when regulators across Europe are paying closer attention to how brands manage online distribution.

Selective distribution systems remain lawful, but this case shows how quickly they can tip into problematic territory when they restrict pricing freedom or close off key sales channels.

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