Competition Authority March 24, 2021 No. 21-D09
By a decision dated March 24, 2021, the French Competition Authority fined 3 French manufacturers of industrial sandwiches sold under private label for cartel.
The sanctioned companies had developed and implemented, between September 2010 and September 2016, a non-aggression pact aimed at sharing volumes and customers and agreeing on prices.
The practices of this "sandwich cartel" have been revealed thanks to the leniency procedure, which allows companies that have participated in a cartel to disclose its existence to the Autorité de la concurrence and to obtain, under certain conditions , the benefit of a total or partial exemption from financial penalties. In the present case, the first company to have requested the benefit of leniency obtained total exemption from any pecuniary penalty.
This decision illustrates the need for companies to independently determine their commercial policy and to refrain from taking part in any contact, direct or indirect, with their competitors, with a view to discussing in particular the prices they plan to propose or the strategies they intend to carry out.
