On Monday 24 June, the European Commission announced that it had fined International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. and International Flavors & Fragrances IFF France SAS (or ‘IFF’) €15.9 million for obstructing one of its inspections in 2023.
In March 2023, the Commission carried out inspections on the premises of companies operating in the perfume sector (see EUROPE 13136/17). In this context, the Commission has indicated that inspection officials wished to examine the mobile phones of certain IFF employees. They found that a senior IFF employee had deleted WhatsApp messages with a competitor containing commercial information after the Commission’s inspection was announced.
The institution describes the offence as “very serious”. IFF has admitted the facts and agreed to help the Commission recover the deleted messages. However, the Commission had not been informed of this deletion.
The overall fine calculated by the Commission represents 0.3% of IFF’s total turnover. However, the institution has decided to reward IFF for its cooperation by reducing this amount by 50%.
The fine actually imposed is therefore €15.9 million, representing 0.15% of IFF’s total sales.
The Commission specified that this was the first fine it had imposed for the deletion of messages exchanged on a mobile phone via a messaging application in the context of an inspection.
The investigation in the perfume sector (see EUROPE 13136/17) is not related to this decision. (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)