Cross-border resale price investigation by Irish competition agency in the electric appliances sector

On 20 January 2026, Ireland’s Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) announced that it is investigating suspected anticompetitive behaviour in the small/household electric appliances sector in Ireland.

In particular, the investigation relates to suspected resale price maintenance (RPM), the process whereby a supplier seeks to control or maintain a particular resale price. For example, a manufacturer may “recommend” or “suggest” a price at which the product is resold by a customer but may generally not control or maintain the resale price which the customer charges its customers. 

Resellers should ordinarily be free to set the price at which they resell goods. The situation is somewhat nuanced in that suppliers may recommend a resale price (but not enforce it) and may also set a maximum resale price but not a minimum one. The position under Irish law may be presented graphically as follows:

Helpfully, the CCPC has informally defined RPM as occurring “when a supplier seeks to control the price at which a product is resold, potentially restricting competition and harming consumers.” This is useful but the nuances of “minimum RPM” (which is permitted) or “recommended RPM” (which is also permitted) need to be borne in mind.

Consumers are harmed when resellers are prevented from reselling goods at whatever low price they want to do so.

The CCPC says that the investigation “relates to a suspected resale price maintenance (RPM) arrangement between a manufacturer, a distributor, and multiple retailers operating in Ireland.” Nothing has been proven and the alleged parties have not been identified but the announced development is noteworthy for several reasons:

• It shows the CCPC’s interest in RPM. While its interest has varied over time, the CCPC appears to be committed in recent times to investigating allegations of RPM.
• The CCPC conducted an unannounced inspection (commonly referred to as a “dawn raid”) at the premises of an Irish-based distributor in June 2025.
• Very interestingly, the CCPC said that in conjunction with the German competition agency (the Bundeskartellamt), an unannounced inspection was also carried out at the premises of a manufacturer located in Germany in November 2025 with CCPC authorised officers supporting the Bundeskartellamt during the operation. This type of cross-border co-operation has occurred in reverse over several years – particularly, with Italian competition officials assisting in inspections in Ireland in the pharmaceutical and air transport sectors.
• The CCPC has issued formal requests for information to several retailers active in Ireland, so information is being collated by the CCPC.
• This investigation is being conducted under the CCPC’s new competition law enforcement powers under the Competition (Amendment) Act 2022 which entered into force in September 2023.
• The CCPC said in its media release that “[u]nder the CCPC’s new administrative enforcement regime, independent adjudication officers of the CCPC may impose financial sanctions on a business which has been found to have breached competition law” and this is very largely correct except that the High Court has the ultimate say on such sanctions and will review the procedure.
• Finally, the CCPC has sensibly asked that “anyone who may have relevant information to contact its Antitrust Division”. The CCPC has invited that contact be by email; some parties may be reluctant to do so by email but presumably the CCPC would meet or have conversations with those who may seek some form of leniency or have information.

The case, which is still at the investigation stage, is interesting because it is a consumer-focussed, cross-border, multi-party, RPM investigation using the new statutory regime.

For more information, please contact Dr. Vincent Power or any member of the EU, Competition & Procurement team.

Date published: 26 January 2026