No Fine For Small Supermarket Chains' Cartel

By decision n°2018-FO-02 of 13 June 2018, the Competition Council ("Council") decided not to impose a fine following its own-initiative investigation of a horizontal cooperation agreement between small supermarket chains involving the joint commercialisation of a series of food retail products at common promotional prices through a website and brochures under the common label "Epiceries du Luxembourg".

The promotional actions and prices were determined at joint meetings between the companies involved. The Council found a horizontal price-fixing agreement in violation of Article 3 of the Law on Competition of 23 October 2011 ("Law") between the Pall Center group and Shopping Center Massen, whose retail sales of daily consumer goods partially overlap from a geographical perspective.