One year after the EU raids on Atomic, Fischer and Blizzard: what we know

The Berlaymont building in Brussels, headquarters of the European Commission. Photo: Euro Pictures via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

On Monday 20 October 2025, inspectors of the European Commission walked into the Blizzard factory in Mittersill. Within a week, Atomic and Fischer had confirmed visits too. Together with Head, these three Austrian brands sell around 60 percent of the world's alpine skis. One year later, the Commission has published nothing more. Here is what is known, what is not, and what it means for the skis in the shops.

• On 20 October 2025 the European Commission announced unannounced inspections "at the premises of several companies active in the ski equipment sector". It suspects a breach of Article 101, the EU ban on cartels.
• The Commission named no company. Tecnica Group (Blizzard), Amer Sports (Atomic) and Fischer Sports confirmed inspections in Mittersill, Altenmarkt and Ried im Innkreis.
• All three say they have always acted within the law and cooperate fully with the authorities.
• As of 24 October 2026 there is no public decision, no formal charge and no fine. The Commission has no legal deadline. A cartel fine can reach 10 percent of a company's worldwide annual turnover.

The inspections fell in the week of the World Cup opener in Sölden. According to the Salzburger Nachrichten, the inspection in Mittersill lasted several days.

The press release of 20 October 2025 is four sentences long. The key one reads: "The Commission has concerns that the inspected companies may have violated EU antitrust rules that prohibit cartels and restrictive business practices (Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union)." It adds the standard warning that inspections "do not mean that the companies in question are guilty of anticompetitive behaviour".

Article 101 forbids agreements between companies that restrict competition. The classic cases are fixing prices, dividing markets or customers, and limiting production. Austrian and Swiss media reported the suspicion as price agreements in the European ski market. The Börse Express wrote that the authorities check whether the manufacturers coordinated prices, discounts or market shares. The Commission itself has not described the conduct. It has also not said whether the case concerns the manufacturers among themselves, or their dealings with retailers.

An unannounced inspection, a "dawn raid" in competition jargon, is the first step of a case. The inspectors copy documents and e-mails and can ask staff for explanations. What they find decides whether the Commission opens formal proceedings or drops the matter.

The results come from the accounts in the Austrian company register, as reported by the Salzburger Nachrichten on 25 November 2025. Fischer explained its fall in revenue of more than €30 million with buyers holding back. It had already cut 150 jobs in March 2024, 20 in Ried and 130 at its plant in western Ukraine.

The scale of the three brands explains why Brussels took an interest. In November 2019, Atomic managing director Wolfgang Mayrhofer, then spokesperson of the Austrian ski industry, put world sales at 3.35 million pairs of alpine skis a year. Atomic, Blizzard, Fischer and Head held about 60 percent of that market, and 75 percent in Austria. Europe took just over 2.2 million pairs. Head, the fourth Austrian brand, has not been named in any report about the inspections.

Tecnica Group said in a written statement that it "is convinced that it has always acted in full compliance with the applicable laws", that it "immediately offered its full cooperation to the involved authorities" and that it "provided all requested information and documents". Fischer Sports confirmed the inspection and said it would cooperate fully with the authorities. Atomic told the Oberösterreichische Nachrichten that it was the "subject of an investigation", and its parent Amer Sports confirmed to the press that the Atomic business was under investigation.

The annual report of Amer Sports for 2025, filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in February 2026, does not mention the inspection by name. It lists antitrust claims and competition authorities only among the general risks of the business.

Since 20 October 2025 the Commission has published nothing further on the case. Its press corner lists no opening of formal proceedings, no statement of objections and no decision. A client note of the law firm Skadden from 22 April 2026 still describes the matter as an investigation into "three Austrian equipment manufacturers for alleged price-fixing agreements". That is the most recent public reference we found.

Silence is normal at this stage. The Commission wrote in its press release: "There is no legal deadline to complete inquiries into anticompetitive conduct." In the trucks cartel, the Commission inspected in January 2011 and fined the manufacturers in July 2016. If the evidence is thin, the Commission can also drop the case, and it does not have to announce that.

If the case goes on, the steps are fixed by EU law. The Commission opens formal proceedings, sends a statement of objections, hears the companies and then decides. A fine for a cartel can reach 10 percent of the worldwide annual turnover of the group concerned. A company that reveals a cartel first can escape its fine entirely under the leniency rules. For scale: recent EU fines in consumer goods ranged from €5.7 million for Pierre Cardin and Ahlers in 2024 to €39.8 million for Guess in 2018. Both cases concerned restrictions on retailers, which the Commission treats as less serious than a price cartel between competitors.

Competition authorities have skiing on their desks elsewhere too. On 17 March 2026, the French competition authority fined the national union of French ski instructors €3.4 million for an exclusivity clause that stopped instructors from working outside the union's ski schools.

Nothing is proven. The three brands are innocent until the Commission decides otherwise, and the skis in the shops are the same skis as before. What you can do is use the market as it is meant to work: compare. The same Atomic Bent 100, Fischer Ranger 96 or Blizzard Black Pearl 88 can differ in price between shops and countries, and our review pages list where each ski is on sale.

If the Commission does find a cartel, EU law gives customers who paid too much the right to claim damages in a national court. That has happened after the trucks cartel. For now, the practical advice stays the same as every autumn: decide first what ski you need, then shop for the price. The Pick-A-Ski tool asks a few questions and ranks every ski in our catalog for your skiing, including the models of all three brands.

Sources: European Commission press release IP/25/2430 of 20 October 2025; Salzburger Nachrichten of 23 October and 25 November 2025; Salzburg24 of 23 and 25 October 2025; vol.at of 23 October 2025 (Tecnica Group statement); MLex of 21 October 2025; ooe.ORF.at of 25 November 2025; Börse Express, October 2025; Salzburg24 of March 2024 (Fischer job cuts); Salzburger Nachrichten of 22 November 2019 (market figures); Amer Sports annual report on Form 20-F for 2025, filed 26 February 2026; Skadden client note of 22 April 2026; European Commission decisions on Guess (2018), Pierre Cardin and Ahlers (2024) and the trucks cartel (2016).