The Competition Authority (AdC) has fined supermarkets Auchan, Lidl, Modelo Continente and Pingo Doce and the supplier of juices, nectaries and soft drinks Sumol + Compal €80 million for a “price fixing scheme”.

In a statement released Wednesday, the AdC detailed that it had “sanctioned Auchan, Lidl, Modelo Continente and Pingo Doce along with a joint supplier of juices, nectars, soft drinks and individual directors for their participation in the sale to consumer (PVP) of that supplier’s products.”

In the note, AdC does not reveal the name of the resource, but provides a “link” to the process, where it can be verified that it is Sumol + Compal.

The entity indicated that “the penalty decision resulted in a total fine of about 80 million euros.”

The largest fine paid by Sumol + Compal, 25.1 million euros, followed by Modelo Continente, 24 million euros. Pingo Doce will have to pay 20.9 million euros, 5.4 million euros for Lidl and 4.4 million euros.

The competition also fined “two individual directors, both directors of Sumol + Compal,” according to information provided on Wednesday, with one fine amounting to 15,200 euros and the other 13,500 euros.

According to AdC, this “practice is very harmful to consumers and affects the Portuguese population in general, where the respective business groups represent a large part of the national market for large-scale food distribution”.

The authority revealed in the statement that “the investigation led to the conclusion that through the contacts created through the joint supplier, without the need for direct communication with each other, the participating distribution companies ensure the alignment of retail prices in their supermarkets, in a plot equivalent to The cartel, is known in competition law terminology as “the hub and the spokes”.

This practice “eliminates competition, deprives consumers of a better price choice, and ensures better levels of profitability for the entire distribution chain, including supplier and supermarket chains.”

The commission also noted that in June 2020, it “adopted the Nota de Ilicitude (indictment) in this case, having given all companies and individuals the opportunity to exercise their right to be heard and defended, which was duly considered in the final decision.” “.

“In December 2020 and more recently, on November 2, 17 and December 16, 2021, AdC already indicted these supermarket chains and four suppliers of beverages, as well as a supplier of packaged bread and cakes for the same type of practice.” , confirmed.

In the statement, the entity noted that “in the current case, AdC determined that the practice lasted more than 14 years – between 2002 and 2017, and targeted many of the beverage dispenser’s ready-made and vegetable-based products, such as juices, nectars, and soft drinks with and without gas.”

“In the decision now adopted, the ACC imposed an immediate cessation of this practice, because it cannot be excluded that the behavior investigated is still continuing,” he said.

According to the competition, fines “are determined by the turnover of sanctioned firms in the affected markets in the years of practice,” and “according to competition law, fines cannot exceed 10% of a firm’s turnover in the year before the sanction decision.”