By Emilio Parodi and Foo Yun Chee
MILAN/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Italian tax police have inspected a premises of luxury goods company Gucci in Milan as part of a European Union investigation into possible violations of rules on business practices, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.
The inspection on Tuesday was carried out by the Guardia di Finanza in cooperation with European Commission agents at a site in the Italian financial capital connected with the manufacture of travel items, handbags and other leather goods, the source said.
Gucci is part of French luxury goods group Kering.
Gucci and Kering declined to comment.
The European Commission said on Tuesday that antitrust regulators had raided companies in the fashion sector in several EU countries.
The Commission, which acts as the competition enforcer in the 27-country EU, did not name the companies or the countries, in line with its policy. It also sent requests for information to companies active in the same sector.
The European Commission declined to comment on Wednesday.
Companies found guilty of breaching EU rules face fines of as much as 10% of their global turnover.
The Commission said on Tuesday that the latest action was not related to other raids on the fashion industry in the past two years.
(Additional reporting by Elisa Anzolin in Milan and Mimosa Spencer in Paris; Writing by Keith Weir; Editing by Catherine Evans)
