The French Competition Authority ("FCA") has fined twelve undertakings involved in a cartel at multiple levels of the ham and cold meats sector.
| what you need to know - key takeaways |
- The fines concerns several cold meat manufacturers who co-ordinated their conduct both on the upstream meat procurement markets and on the downstream markets for the wholesale sale of ham and cold meats.
- For only the second time in its decisional practice, the FCA did not grant impunity from fines to the first leniency applicant.
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On 16 July 2020, the FCA issued a decision (n°20-D-09) imposing fines to 12 undertakings which were party to a cartel in the ham and cold meats sector between 2010 and 2013. The investigation was triggered by an initial leniency application, followed by second application, and dawn raids conducted in 2013.
The cartel consisted of three distinct infringements set of practices that took place at different levels of the supply chain, namely:
- co-ordination (including information exchange) on prices on the upstream market for the procurement of ham flank (used to produce cooked hams), purchased by the manufacturers from slaughterhouses; and
- co-ordination on prices on the downstream markets for the sale of private labels and value for money products to retailers (second and third infringements).
Other than the double-sided nature of this conduct, two additional aspects of the decision are worth noting:
- First, the FCA used an unusual method to determine the amount of fines. It calculated the fines on the basis of the downstream sales and upstream purchases made by the cartelists, but did not explicitly mention the proportion of the downstream sales or upstream purchases taken into account to calculate the fine's basic amount.
- Second, for only the second time in its decisional practice (see FCA, decision n°15-D-19 dated 15 December 2015), the FCA did not grant immunity from fines to the first leniency applicant. This was because that applicant did not provide complete information on the cartel, having omitted to report some of the cartel meetings.
With thanks to Anne Dos of Ashurst for her contribution.
