Irish Beef Industry Restructuring Case Concludes

The long running case by the Irish Competition Authority against an Irish beef industry association (the Beef Industry Development Society (BIDS)) has finally concluded after an out of court settlement was reached.  The case involved an agreement by members of BIDS to leave the beef processing industry in return for payment.  The settlement follows a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJ) that an agreement of this kind is illegal and a subsequent judgment of the Irish Supreme Court that the BIDS agreement had infringed Article 101(1) TFEU.

The case commenced in 2003 after the BIDS restructuring scheme was introduced.  The main objective of the scheme was to reduce the total capacity of the processing industry by 25% within one year, following a market study, commissioned in part by the Irish Government.  Under the scheme, some of the BIDS members agreed to leave the processing industry, to decommission their processing plants and to respect a two