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It emerges from a press release from the Norwegian Competition Authority on Wednesday.
“The Norwegian Competition Authority has concluded that Verisure and Sector Alarm, who are by far the main players in the Norwegian home alarm market, have collaborated on the market distribution in the period 2011 to 2017 “the report states.
DN has previously written about how alarm companies met in so-called “white flag” meetings, where they discussed how they should avoid selling alarms to each other’s customers. There must have been senior sales management representatives from both companies present.
I did not accept the rate
Where Verisure and Sector Alarm were notified last year of rates of NOK 784 and 424 million, respectively, the final rates were somewhat lower for Verisure and approximately NOK 43 million higher for Sector Alarm, despite the latter accepting the rate. original already in 2019.
According to the head of the department, Hanne Dahl Amundsen, of the Norwegian Competition Authority, the difference in fees is due to the fact that the authority has calculated the duration of the infringement differently than last year and that they have had consider other performance figures.
– The Verisure rate was lowered a bit and the Sector Alarm rate was increased for various reasons. For Verisure, we have calculated the duration of the violation in a different way, as we have received a change in practice to calculate the duration, and this will result in the final fee, says Amundsen.
He points out that on the part of Sector Alarm, the higher amount is due to the fact that the audit is based on the result of 2018 instead of 2017, which was lower.
– There are two different reasons why the rates were changed, but the violations are equally serious and the changes are due to technicalities in both cases.
Verisure now writes in a press release that it is aware of the decision in the case.
– We are very disappointed with the decision of the Danish Competition Authority. We do not agree with the Authority’s assessments and will appeal the decision to the Competition Appeals Board, says press manager Glenn Støldal at Verisure in Norway in the report.
He does not share the views of the Norwegian Competition Authority on the alleged price cooperation.
– The Norwegian market in which we operate is characterized by strong competition with high investments in innovation, marketing and sales. The facts of the case show that there has been fierce competition in the market between Verisure and Sector Alarm on all sales channels during the period under review, says Støldal.
I’d leave the case behind him
The Norwegian Competition Authority writes in its press release that Verisure has the opportunity to appeal the decision to the Competition Appeals Board, which the company claims it intends to do.
“We are disappointed to see that the contact between the parties has been taken out of context and that the Norwegian Competition Authority has ignored the facts that we have presented. We will also address this in the appeal,” stated in the press release of Verisure.
Sector Alarm, for its part, has already adopted the tariff.
– A year and a half ago, in June 2019, we decided to adopt the tariff because we wanted to put the case behind us, says communications manager Sissel Eckblad at Sector Alarm to DN, adding:
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