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At the end of last year, Toyota was fined more than 80 million by regulators for suspected price monopoly by Rex. It was thought that such a penalty would "restrain" Toyota, but it did not. There is still a price increase in a Lexus 4S store in Beijing's Chaoyang district, and consumers still have to wait three months and raise the price by 10,000 yuan, Caijing reported.

On December 27, 2019, the official website of the State Administration of Market Supervision and Administration published a written decision on administrative punishment issued by the Jiangsu Provincial Market Supervision and Administration Bureau concerning the monopoly case of Toyota (China) Investment Co., Ltd.

The anti-monopoly law was violated by Toyota's Lexus brand, unifying dealer network quotations and limiting the minimum price for resale goods by dealers. Specifically, Toyota reached an agreement with dealers to limit the dealer network quotation and the resale price of some models; Toyota implemented the agreement to limit the dealer network quotation and the resale price of some models.

To this end, the former Jiangsu Price Bureau as early as December 2017 on Toyota Motor (China) Investment Co., Ltd. suspected of carrying out a monopoly investigation, involving the Lexus brand, investigated the illegal behavior is true, imposed a fine of 87.6131 million yuan, and ordered it to stop the illegal behavior.

A lawyer explained the punishment: "Lexus and the dealer are in different parts of the Lexus sales chain and have independent legal status, and the dealer is the counterpart of the Lexus transaction." Therefore, it is obvious that Lexus has broken the law by imposing price limits on dealers. " In response to the matter, Toyota, the parent company of Lexus, responded by saying, "accept the fine from the General Administration and seriously rectify it."

However, there is still a price increase by dealers in Lexus after the penalty. It is understood that the ES 300h model currently sold in a Lexus 4S store in Chaoyang District of Beijing is still best-selling and out of stock. If consumers buy the model, they still have to increase the price by 10, 000 and wait three months. At the end of last year, due to the event, the original base price increase of 30,000 was reduced.

On the other hand, during the event, the Lexus RX450hL offered a discount of about 10,000 yuan on the basis of the original price increase of 50,000 to 60,000 yuan, that is, if consumers choose the Lexus RX450hL model, they still need to increase the price by 40,000 to 50,000 yuan on the basis of the manufacturer's guiding price.

He was aware of the in-store sales of Lexus price monopoly, but revealed that it had nothing to do with the dealer, because the punished Toyota, that is, Toyota, had nothing to do with the dealer. and the location of the previous punishment did not involve Beijing. At present, the sales of models have been very good, and consumers are also willing to increase prices and other cars.

Since September this year, Lexus officially announced a price increase, and consumers have to bear the cost of price increase at the same time. Take Lexus ES as an example, the official price increase is 1.1-15000 yuan, plus many dealers increase the retail price by 20,000-30,000 yuan on the grounds of adding project functions, which means that the final starting retail price of ES cars will reach 31-320000 yuan.

The price increase of Lexus was dissatisfied with many consumers. Some netizens once said in the forum: I will put up with the whole price; I will put up with the price increase of 20,000; after waiting for the bus for 3-5 months, I will also put up with it; the whole department will raise the price and prepare to refund the deposit. It also said it had no feelings for the brand since then.

Another car blogger ordered the ES model, which was told to make up the price difference by 15000 yuan. "I've been waiting for three months, but I'm going to pick up the car in November, and the price will go up, and the landing will be almost 500000," he said.

However, judging from the sales volume of Lexus in 2019, it has maintained a year-on-year increase for four consecutive months since the price rise in September, with a total of 200521 new cars sold for the whole year, an increase of 25% over the same period last year, breaking the 200000 mark for the first time. At the same time, it has become the first domestic brand to break through 200000 imported models, which shows that repeated price increases have no impact on Lexus, or even continue to rise.

Under the rhythm that the sales volume is gradually climbing, the sudden "scandal" of price monopoly has more or less an impact on Lexus, but Lexus, which is still "committing crimes against the wind", is still punished too little in the eyes of netizens. It simply does not have the effect of warning, so it is hotly discussed by many netizens.

To this end, the state has put more weight on monopoly again. On January 3, 2020, the State Administration of Market Supervision issued a notice to further improve the legal system of anti-monopoly. A revised draft (draft for public solicitation of opinions) (hereinafter referred to as "draft for soliciting opinions") was drafted, which will be open to the public for comments from now on to January 31, 2020.

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