BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP)—The EU on Tuesday slapped luxury fashion brands Gucci, Chloe and Loewe with fines amounting to more than 157 million euros ($182 million) for fixing resale prices.

The fines come after the European Commission launched surprise raids on the companies in April 2023 and a formal antitrust probe in July 2024.

The commission said it has now imposed the fines because the three brands restricted independent retailers’ ability to set their own retail prices online and in stores.

The EU’s powerful antitrust watchdog said such anticompetitive behaviour increases prices and reduces choice for consumers.

“This decision sends a strong signal to the fashion industry and beyond that we will not tolerate this kind of practices in Europe,” the EU’s antitrust commissioner Teresa Ribera said in a statement.

The penalties were reduced for all three after they acknowledged their violations and cooperated with the commission.

Brussels hit Kering-owned Italian label Gucci — by far the largest of the three companies — with a 119.7-million-euro fine for infringements between April 2015 and April 2023.

French house Chloe received a 19.7-million-euro fine for violations between December 2019 and April 2023.

And the EU slapped Spanish house Loewe, owned by French luxury group LVMH, with a fine worth 18 million euros for the infringement period between December 2015 and April 2023.

The EU said the companies “interfered with their retailers’ commercial strategies” including by forcing them not to deviate from maximum discount rates and specific periods for sales.

In some cases, the three brands temporarily banned retailers from offering any discounts, the commission said, adding that the firms “acted independently of each other”.

Kering said it “acknowledges” the EU’s decision “related to past commercial practices at Gucci” and had prepared for a fine in its financial statements for the first half of 2025. “The exposure is entirely covered,” it added.

Loewe said it “reiterates its firm commitment to acting in strict compliance with competition law”.

“We take this matter extremely seriously and acted with the utmost diligence to address it,” Chloe, owned by Swiss group Richemont, said in a statement.

“Since the 2023 investigation, we have reinforced our compliance framework with enhanced measures to ensure strict adherence to competition law.”