Retailers Carrefour, Auchan, and Cora must pay some EUR 19 million for price-fixing in Romania as the local Competition Council announced that it definitively won the lawsuits against the former two – which challenged the fine in court.

The Competition Council fined the three approximately RON 87.713 million (EUR 18.8 million) in 2019 for fixing shelf prices in the promotions carried out by retailers.

Carrefour Romania, which took over Cora in 2023, admitted the deeds and, as a result, did not challenge the decision of the competition authority.

"The High Court of Cassation and Justice has definitively confirmed that the retailers Auchan, Cora Romania and four of their suppliers, fined by the Competition Council for fixing shelf prices, have violated competition rules," informs the competition authority.

In 2019, the competition authority sanctioned the retailers Auchan, Carrefour, Cora Romania (Hypermarche) and the suppliers Quadrant-Amroq Beverages, Star Foods EM, Strauss Romania, and Nelson Prod with fines totaling approximately RON 87.7 million (EUR 18, 8 million), for fixing shelf prices within the promotions carried out by retailers.

The Competition Council found that in certain cases, shelf sales prices were not set according to market rules through the ratio between demand and supply, but the supplier and retailer set a fixed or minimum price for the resale of products to final consumers, generating higher prices for them.

Cora and Auchan contested the sanctioning decision, but both the first instance, the Court of Appeal, and the High Court of Cassation and Justice (ICCJ) rejected the companies' actions as unfounded. At the same time, Cora also requested the suspension of the fine payment until the trial was finalised on merit, but the court rejected the company's request.

iulian@romania-insider.com

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