If you play with fire too much, you end up getting burnt. On Thursday 19 December, the French Competition Authority (Autorité de la concurrence) fined ten household appliance manufacturers and two distributors €611m for colluding to maintain higher selling prices on the French market between February 2007 and December 2014.

The companies involved are BSH, Candy Hoover, Eberhardt, Electrolux, Whirlpool (which took over Indesit), LG, Miele, SEB and Smeg, as well as distributors Boulanger and Darty. The latter two chains even participated fully in these practices, the competition authority points out, emphasising the “weight” of the two behemoths, which sought to ensure that “the products they sold would not be significantly cheaper elsewhere,” particularly on the internet.

The practices used by these companies went well beyond a simple price cartel: they also included measures such as banning the sale of certain products on the internet and the communication of “recommended selling prices” by manufacturers using “coded language to conceal the price instructions,” followed by “monitoring” to ensure that distributors complied with them.

Darty Fnac, which was fined €109m, has chosen not to contest the facts. The company said that it wanted to “quickly conclude a complex procedure” so that it could focus on its “strategic plan.” Nine of the 12 companies fined also opted for the settlement procedure, which allows them to reduce their fine in exchange for accepting the facts.

On the other hand, manufacturer SEB and distributor Boulanger, which were fined €189.5m and €84.35m respectively, have contested the complaints.

This article was originally published in .