The European Commission announced, on Thursday 28 January, the opening of an investigation against the American food giant Mondelēz, owner of the Lu, Oreo, Milka and Toblerone brands, suspected of restricting competition in several national chocolate, biscuit and coffee markets.
Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President responsible for competition policy, said: “We are opening a formal investigation to see whether Mondelēz, a key producer of these products, might have restricted free competition in the markets concerned by implementing various practices hindering trade flows, ultimately leading to higher prices for consumers”.
Mondelēz is one of the largest producers of chocolate, biscuits and coffee in the EU.
The Commission is concerned that Mondelēz may have restricted the so-called ‘parallel trade’ in its chocolates, biscuits and coffee between certain EU Member States through agreements and unilateral practices.
In particular, the Commission will investigate certain potentially anti-competitive practices of Mondelēz including: - possible limitations of the sales territories within the EU through agreements that determine in which Member State a trader can or cannot sell the products, or that restrict passive sale; - possible curtailing of parallel trade through agreements that raise prices or limit volumes specifically for customers that trade the products across; - possible agreements with customers not to engage in parallel trade or not to procure products from parallel trade, inter alia, in exchange for payments or other forms of compensation; - possible restrictions on the languages used on packaging either unilaterally or through agreements with traders, thereby creating friction on sales to certain other EU Member States; - possible refusal to supply certain traders with a view to restricting imports into certain markets.
The Commission conducted unannounced inspections at Mondelēz in November 2019. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)