Serbia’s anti-trust watchdog has launched an investigation into local Agrokor-owned ice cream maker Frikom over the company’s alleged “abuse of a dominant position on the ice cream distribution and sale markets”.
The announcement by the Commission for Protection of Competition came as the watchdog revealed it had conducted an unannounced “dawn raid” on premises in Belgrade belonging to Frikom, which is part of embattled Croatian food manufacturer and retailer Agrokor.
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The Commission said it inspected “business premises, data, documents and belongings” at two locations in the city.
According to the Commission, based on what it said were “documents and data collected to date”, Frikom is suspected of offering financial inducements to its customers “from 2014 to the present”.
The alleged inducements were for customers “to prevent or terminate cooperation with competing manufacturers or distributors of ice cream”, the Commission claimed. Such customers were “mostly local retail chains, retail shops and kiosks” across Serbia, the Commission claimed.
Last month, Agrokor said unspecified units of the group were set to be broken up and some sold off within a year in a move aimed at paying down the debts of the group.
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By GlobalData
