On Thursday 25 January, the European Commission announced that it had communicated its objections to Norwegian salmon producers Cermaq, Grieg Seafood, Bremnes, Lerøy, Mowi and SalMar. In its preliminary view, the Commission suspects that the six companies may have entered into a cartel in the EU between 2011 and 2019 on the market for spot sales of fresh farmed Atlantic salmon in Norway. This alleged anti-competitive behaviour would not have concerned sales based on long-term contracts.
The Commission suspects that, during this period, the six companies exchanged commercially sensitive information concerning sales prices, available volumes, sales volumes, production volumes and salmon production capacity. This information may also have related to other pricing factors. This type of behaviour is prohibited by Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU.
The Commission had previously received information from several players in the relevant market and Commission officials, accompanied by their counterparts from the relevant national competition authorities, carried out unannounced inspections of these companies in February 2019 as part of an “ex officio investigation”. (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)