Mickey & Co: very expensive Disney toys; the EU turns the spotlight on them

Brussels – Mickey Mouse, Elsa, Winnie-the-Pooh, and Luke Skywalker: all Disney characters and at the center of a trade policy that ends up in the crosshairs of the European Union. The well-known film production company would make too much money by reselling themed toys at ‘inflated’ prices. That, at least, is the reading and the doubt in the European Parliament, where the expensive Disney issue is fueling debate and ends up in the agenda of proceedings.

Angelo Ciocca, a League MEP not re-elected in the June 9 election MEP, leaves Brussels with a parliamentary question in which he denounces that “in recent years Disney has been imposing high prices for its toys.” A pricing policy for dolls, accessories, and the like that “turns out to be unaffordable for many families.”

There is doubt that the U.S. trademark circumvents European competition rules set out in Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFUE). Article 101 of the TFEU bans agreements between two or more independent undertakings to prevent, restrict, or distort competition within the internal market. Article 102, on the other hand, prohibits undertakings that hold a dominant position in the internal market or a substantial part thereof from abusing that position.

Is this really the case? Do Mickey Mouse & Co. end up impoverishing EU families because of an unsustainable pricing policy in defiance of the rules? Not for the Commission. “Currently, the Commission has no indication that the Walt Disney Company has concluded agreements that are contrary” to the community rules of the two articles “or that it holds a dominant position within the internal market and abuses its dominance,” said Margrethe Vestager, EU Commissioner in charge of Competition. ” In Brussels, however, they take note, and the EU Commission “will carefully review any concrete information it receives that would point towards an infringement of the EU competition rules by the Walt Disney Company.” Mickey Mouse and friends are on notice.