Owners of Toblerone Milka and Oreo were fined €337.5m (£288m ) in the EU for anti-competitive behavior.
The US food group formerly known as Mondelez, is the largest confectionery company in the world. It owns Ritz biscuits and TUC chocolate, Cadbury and Cote D’Or, and the coffee brands JAG Jacobs Velours Noir.
According to the European Commission, it was found to be involved in 22 unfair business practices .
Margrethe Vestager said that it was “blatantly illegal” and that the fine was a “clear message” that the EU would penalise companies that violated the rules of the single market.
The price of groceries is an issue that is of great concern to Europeans, and is even more so in these times of high inflation when many people are experiencing a crisis of cost of living.
She said that the EU investigation which began in 2019 showed that Mondelez “illegally limited retailers from sourcing products from member state where prices are cheaper” to maintain higher pricing. She said that this resulted in consumers paying more for coffee, chocolates and biscuits.
These restrictive practices violated the rules of the internal market, which allowed consumers to purchase cheaper products from another member state or for manufacturers and wholesalers to offer their goods in a state that offered higher prices.
Vestager said that this “parallel trading” is “at the core” of the concept for the single market. She stated that the chocolate price difference between members states ranged from 10% to 40%, and “sometimes even more”.
Vestager stated that the commission found Mondelez to have prevented 11 distributors from “making such sales, either by imposing contract restrictions or by asking for permission on a per-case basis”. The commission also found that Mondelez had abused its position of dominance.
Mondelez removed Cote D’Or bars from the Netherlands shelves to “prevent retailers reselling them in Belgium”, where they are more expensive. In another instance, it stopped a wholesaler buying chocolate from Germany because it was cheaper.
Vestager stated that the violations were “very serious”, but the commission also took into account the fact Mondelez cooperated in the investigation. The commission decided to reduce the fine of 15% due to the “efficient resolution” and the fact that Mondelez had cooperated with the investigation.
Commission said that unfair practices stopped in 2020.
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