Secret agreements food industry? ACM conducts raids

The Dutch Consumer & Market Authority (ACM) is investigating a possible cartel in the food processing sector. For this purpose, the ACM recently carried out raids at several companies in the Netherlands and - with the help of a fellow authority abroad - a company abroad in the food processing sector.

It is suspected that the competing companies make secret agreements among themselves about product distribution. This is prohibited. Product distribution involves mutual agreements about who is going to make what product, while each company has to decide this independently. There are also suspicions that the companies make agreements about the purchase price of the agricultural products they process and about the selling price of the products they deliver.

The ACM will investigate in the coming period whether the competition rules have indeed been violated. If the conclusion is that the rules have not been violated, the investigation will end. If the ACM does find a violation, this may lead to a fine for the companies involved.

In 2019, the ACM started an investigation into a purchasing cartel in the agricultural sector. That investigation is still ongoing. In addition, at the request of the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, the ACM conducts annual investigations into the price development of agricultural products. Recently, the ACM started enforcing the Unfair Commercial Practices in Agriculture Act.

acm.nl