Freezer Exclusivity – The ECJ Speaks

The European Court of Justice has dismissed an appeal by Unilever against a decision of the Court of First Instance that there is a breach of EU competition law where a company supplies a retailer with a freezer cabinet on the basis that the retailer will stock the freezer only with the supplying company’s products. This case is relevant to suppliers whether or not their products are dominant.

The ECJ dismissed all of the grounds of appeal as either inadmissible or unfounded, so the position remains as set out in the CFI’s judgment. That judgment was made in November 2003 and found that the freezer exclusivity restricts competition, that no individual exemption is available and that Unilever’s subsidiary which imposed the obligation (HB) has abused its dominant position. See our earlier Law-Now on the CFI judgment.