Austrian Supreme Court Of Justice Increases Fine On Retailer Spar

On 8 October 2015, the Austrian Supreme Court of Justice (the "Supreme Court") increased the fine against Spar, a food retailer, from € 3 million to € 30 million after upholding an earlier finding of illegal pricing agreements relating to dairy products.

On 26 November 2014, the Higher Regional Court of Vienna (the "Cartel Court") had found that Spar entered into a series of anti-competitive pricing agreements with several suppliers in the dairy products sector between 2002 and 2012, and imposed a fine of € 3 million (proceedings concerning other product groups are still pending). These agreements were found to have both vertical and horizontal aspects. In brief, Spar agreed with the supplier the resale price that Spar would charge and the supplier in turn agreed to communicate this price to Spar's competitors and to induce them to apply it. As such, this amounted to a hub-and-spoke arrangement intended to prevent competition between Spar and its competitors.