Luxury goods companies may ban sales of their products on online platforms like Amazon to preserve their aura of exclusivity, the European Union's top court said Wednesday. The court said Coty's effort to limit distributors "is appropriate to preserve the luxury image of those goods," adding that it "does not appear to go beyond what is necessary." Coty wanted to ban an authorized distributor from selling its products on Amazon.de in a case pending at a Frankfurt court, which requested a ruling from EU judges. Germany's antitrust agency said it was examining the EU court ruling, but expected it to have only a limited effect on its own decisions. Manufacturers of goods that aren't luxury brands "still have no carte blanche to sweepingly limit their distributors' use of sales platforms, according to our assessment," Mundt added.

Source: ABC News December 06, 2017 12:18 UTC