By
Reuters
Published
May 6, 2026
German clothing maker Ahlers, the largest licensee of French fashion house Pierre Cardin, on Wednesday lost its fight against a 3.5 million euro ($4.12 million) EU antitrust fine after Europe’s second-highest court backed regulators’ calculations.
The European Commission, which acts as the EU competition enforcer, handed out the fine to Ahlers two years ago for illegally blocking cross-border sales of Pierre Cardin-branded products in Europe via anti-competitive deals between 2008 and 2021. The maximum fine under EU antitrust rules is 10% of a company’s global annual turnover but Ahlers argued at the Luxembourg-based General Court that its subsidiary Ahlers AG should not have been included in the Commission’s calculation as its business activities had been transferred to an investor in July 2023 as part of insolvency proceedings.
“The Commission was justified in taking into account the consolidated turnover of the applicant as a parent company, which therefore included that of its subsidiary, Ahlers AG, between December 1, 2022 and July 15, 2023,” judges said.
“Indeed, during the period of the infringement and until the latter date, the applicant formed a single economic unit with Ahlers AG, over which it exercised decisive influence,” they said. Ahlers can appeal to the Court of Justice, Europe’s highest. The case is titled T-87/25 Westfälisches Textilwerk Adolf Ahlers Stiftung & Co. KG against European Commission.
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