Competition Council proposes fines for large retailers in Romania

Romania’s Competition Council has recommended fines for retailers Metro, Rewe (Selgros Cash & Carry), Mega Image and Interex and their suppliers. This comes after the council completed the investigation on the retail market. The fines will range from 2% to 4% of each company's turnover. The first hearings in this case will take place by the end of October, so this case is expected to be closed by late-2014, according to Bogdan Chiritoiu, president of the Competition Council. “The Competition Council proposes fines for the companies involved , but given that these are vertical agreements, or law breaches of medium severity, fines range, by law, between 2% and 4% of the turnover, a percentage that can be influenced by several factors, such as the duration of the agreements,” said Chiritoiu. The Council started this investigation on the retail market in 2009. There are four investigations, one into the Metro group and its suppliers, the second, between the Rewe group and its suppliers, and the third, between Mega Image and it suppliers, while the fourth, between CDE Interex and its suppliers. While being separate cases, the investigations were carried out at the same time, as they targeted the same type of law violations. The Council however did not explain what the law violation consisted of, and what were the vertical agreements between retailers and their suppliers. The fines in this case can go up to dozens of millions of euros, considering only the retail groups have sales of over EUR 2 billion. “Only Metro has a business of some EUR 1 billion, so the fines will be high,” added Chiritoiu. In 2011, the Competition Council set record fines for six Romanian oil companies. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com