It is the second fine in less than a month. And the third since March. The Competition Authority (AdC) once again fell on the distribution sector and condemned Auchan, Modelo Continente and Pingo Doce, as well as Beiersdorf, for price fixing. The fine amounts to 19.5 million euros.
In a statement sent this Monday, the AdC reveals that it sanctioned the three chains and the common provider of personal hygiene and cosmetic products, as well as a person in charge of this company, “for having participated in a scheme to fix consumer prices” . sales (RRP) of that supplier’s products.
The largest fine corresponds to Modelo Continente, sentenced to pay 7.52 million euros, followed by Pingo Doce, with 4.88 million euros, Beiersdorf, with 4.4 million euros, and Auchan, sentenced to pay 2 .66 million euros. The person in charge of Beiesdorf received a fine of 9,276 euros.
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The investigation determined that the practice lasted seven years – between 2011 and 2017 – and was directed at various Beiersdorf products, such as deodorants, sunscreens, lip balms and face creams.
The AdC concluded that the distribution companies “ensured the alignment of retail prices in their supermarkets through contacts established through the common supplier, without the need to communicate directly with each other”, in what is known as a hub-and-spoke case. -spoke, a “conspiracy equivalent to a cartel”.
The practice “eliminates competition, depriving consumers of the option of better prices, but ensuring better levels of profitability for the entire distribution chain, including supply chains and supermarkets.”
The accusation related to this case was issued in December 2020. All companies were then given the opportunity to “exercise their right to be heard and defended, which was duly considered in the final decision.” The decision can now be appealed.
80 million euros. Competition fines supermarkets again for “price fixing scheme”
The fines are determined by the billing of the sanctioned companies in the affected markets in the years of the practice and cannot exceed 10% of the company’s billing in the year prior to the sanctioning decision, nor 10% of the remuneration per annum received in the last year of the offence, in the case of natural persons.
Since it began investigating cases of hub-and-spoke in distribution, the authority headed by Margarida Matos Rosa has sanctioned six supermarket chains and eight suppliers. With this process, the eighth, the total amount of the fines amounts to more than 664 million euros.
Source: Observadora
