The Italian competition authority said on Tuesday it had opened two investigations into Swiss watchmaker Swatch and Japan's Citizen Watch.

The ⁠probes involve an alleged infringement of European ⁠rules on the fixing of retail prices displayed online by the ‍groups' ‌authorised distributors.

The two companies may ⁠be limiting ‌price competition among their ‌retailers through a vertical agreement, by imposing retail prices on their distributors and adopting "retaliatory ‍commercial measures" against those that fail to comply, the antitrust ‌authority ⁠said in a statement.

The agency's ⁠officials carried out inspections at the Italian offices of Swatch and Citizen on December 3.

Swatch and Citizen did not ⁠immediately respond ⁠to a request for comment.

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