BELGIUM – The European Union has imposed a US$366 million antitrust fine on confectionary and snack maker Mondelez International for hindering the cross-border trade of snacks and confectionaries, breaking EU competition rules.
According to the EU, Mondelez abused its dominant market position to breach antitrust laws. After the company acknowledged the antitrust breach, the EU reduced the fine by 15%.
Through an official statement, the EU revealed Mondelez breached antitrust laws by “Limiting the territories or customers to which seven wholesale customers (traders/”brokers”) could resell Mondelēz’ products. One agreement also included a provision ordering Mondelēz’s customer to apply higher prices for exports compared to domestic sales.”
The EU also accused the confectioner of refusing to pay a German supplier broker between 2015 and 2019 to prevent the resale of chocolate products in countries where prices were higher.
The breaches referred in the case occurred between 2012 and 2019. In the EU, there is no statute of limitations on antitrust laws.
However, this acknowledgment was mixed as Mondelez said it had already dealt with the situation.
The confectioner said the case involved isolated, historical incidents that were either corrected or stopped at advanced stages of the investigation. This was the company’s attempt to mitigate the reputation damage from the highly publicized case.
“Many of these incidents were related to business dealings with brokers, which are typically conducted via sporadic and often one-off sales and a limited number of small-scale distributors developing new businesses in the EU markets in which Modelez is not present or does not market respective products,” Mondelez said in a statement.
“This historical matter is not representative of who we are and the strong culture of compliance for which we strive,” the statement continued.
The reprimand is the ninth-largest antitrust fine imposed by the EU and comes when consumers grapple with high inflation.
The confectioner reported setting aside more than US$325 million in anticipation of the fine.
The EU continues to apply pressure on multinational companies actively participating in the European market, especially those that take advantage of inflation to engage in underhand tactics that result in unfairly high prices for consumers.
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