LONDON — “You can never have too many friends,” says Hello Kitty. But the character — who wears a red bow but has no mouth — doesn’t appear to have found one among the European Union’s antitrust regulators.

The European Commission fined Sanrio, the Japanese company that licenses Hello Kitty and a range of other characters, 6.2 million euros, or around $6.9 million, for illegally restricting where manufacturers can sell the licensed toys, bags and other products.

The restrictions led to less choice and higher prices for consumers, the commission said.

“Traders who sell licensed products cannot be prevented from selling products in a different country,” Margrethe Vestager, the union’s competition commissioner, said in a statement.

“Consumers, whether they are buying a Hello Kitty mug or a Chococat toy,” she continued, “can now take full advantage of one of the main benefits of the Single Market: the ability to shop around Europe for the best deals.”