News News Flash - AdC fines six supermarket chains and two beverage suppliers 23/12/2020

Following press release No. 22/2020, the Competition Authority (AdC) made public that it recently adopted two condemnatory decisions against six supermarket chains, two beverage suppliers, a director and a manager for indirectly agreeing on the selling prices of certain products, to raise them gradually and progressively in the retail market, to the detriment of consumers.

This is a case of “hub-and-spoke”, “a practice in which distributors use their contacts with the common supplier to ensure, through this, that they all have the same selling price to the public (PVP) , guaranteeing a general increase in the PVP and avoiding direct contacts with each other, as usually happens in a cartel ”.

AdC's decision targets are the supermarket chains Modelo Continente, Pingo Doce, Auchan, Intermarché, Lidl and Cooplecnorte (responsible for E.Leclerc), beverage suppliers Sociedade Central de Cervejas (SCC) and Primedrinks, an administrator of SCC and a director of Modelo Continente.

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