Swatch has lodged a complaint with the Federal Administrative Court against the latest decision of the Competition Commission (Comco) linked to the delivery of movements by the Biennial subsidiary, ETA, to watch brands not belonging to the group.
The owner of Omega and Longines filed the complaint on January 20, the watchmaking group told AWP, confirming an article published by the newspaper. NZZ Wednesday. The Biennese wants to be able to freely choose its mechanical movement customers but also to determine volumes.
Also read: Swatch: Comco to ban ETA from delivering movements
Comco has until February 25 to take a position, said its director Patrik Ducrey. The date of publication of the decision of the Federal Administrative Court is not yet known, however.
Provisional measure
In December, the competition policeman announced that he would decide in the summer of 2020 of a “possible” extension of the obligation to supply mechanical movements for ETA to third parties. This interim measure is valid until “no later than December 31, 2020”.
Also read: In watchmaking, the war of movements is relaunched
The gendarme’s provisional measures announced at the end of last year provide for the “provisional suspension” of the supply of mechanical movements to customers due to the ETA order process which requires that watch brands place their orders six months in advance , the time necessary for planning production at the subsidiary of the watchmaking group.
Misunderstanding of the watch industry
The December announcement is linked to the amicable agreement between Swatch Group and Comco at the end of 2013. The latter stipulated that ETA may gradually reduce the deliveries of mechanical movements to its existing customers until the end of 2019. and that there will be no further delivery obligations after this date.
Reducing ETA’s dominant position in the mechanical movements market was the main motivation for this agreement.
The decision taken in December by Comco had caused some misunderstanding in the watchmaking sector.
On our blogs: When COMCO grabs its feet and the Swatch Group manipulates the information
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