Cyriel Ruers was interviewed by Het Financieele Dagblad about the fine imposed by the European Commission on Mondelez amounting to €330 million. Among other things, the food multinational made it difficult for Dutch supermarkets to purchase and resell its products in Belgium, where prices are higher than in the Netherlands. It also required a customer to charge a higher price for products it exported compared to domestic sales, and in other cases required Mondelez's permission to respond to requests from foreign customers (passive sales).
In the article, Cyriel calls territorial supply restrictions ‘a hot topic in Europe’. Indeed, measures have been discussed for some time, including in last November's Ecorys report following a Campen/De Groot motion. Also at European level, the Netherlands is now advocating regulatory changes and is said to have the support of seven other member states already.
‘The penalty for Mondelez is “significantly higher” than that for AB Inbev, says Cyriel Ruers, a lawyer at Maverick Advocaten, which he considers remarkable. Ruers: ‘The fine relates to 22 agreements with a substantial number of purchasers over an extended period. That shows that the use of these agreements was apparently a widespread practice, while as far as I am concerned they are fairly obvious infringements for which the authorities have imposed high fines before.’
Ruers says the sanction proves that the European Commission uses enforcement to reduce price differences of food products between member states. "Territorial supply restrictions are a hot topic in Europe.’’
You can read the full article here.
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