I ran across this story a couple of days ago. It seems the state of Bavaria are charging several firms (including Thomann) over price-fixing.
In the interests of transparency, I am a frequent Thomann customer and enjoy their service, so I have no bias one way or another. I just found this interesting.
"Germany’s Federal Cartel Office has fined three music brands and two dealers a total of €21m for price-fixing. They are Yamaha, Roland, Fender, Thomann and Music Store.
READ MORE: Korg, Roland and GAK fined £5.75m for breaking retail competition law
The companies were accused of “systematically” restricting price competition, colluding to set minimum prices on goods in 13 instances between April 2014 and December 2018, said the Cartel Office. This is in accordance with the EU’s competition rules which protects consumers against practices such as price fixing.
A statement explained that when the retailers undercut minimum sales prices, staff at Yamaha, Roland and Fender would “on several occasions contact Thomann and Music Store and ask these retailers to adjust their sales prices, which they also did in many cases.”
The whole article can be found here...
https://www.musictech.net/news/industry/yamaha-roland-fender-thomann-music-store-fined-total-of-e21m-for-price-fixing/