Nespresso Forced To Offer Strengthened Commitments To End Coffee-Capsule Probe

On 4 September 2014, the French Competition Authority (FCA) announced that it had accepted and rendered binding a series of improved commitments offered by Nespresso to end an investigation into allegedly abusive and exclusive practices that had the effect of precluding competing manufacturers of coffee-capsules from Nespresso's coffee machines.

In France, Nespresso sold 73% of the capsule-coffee machines and Nespresso sold 85% of the capsules compatible with these machines in 2012. Following complaints by two producers of compatible capsules and the FCA's preliminary finding that Nespresso's conduct on the market could be viewed as an abuse of a dominant position, Nespresso proposed its first set of commitments in April 2014 (See VBB on Competition Law, Volume 2014, No. 4, available at www.vbb.com).