Carrefour Marinopoulos is facing an EUR12.5m (US$16.12m) fine from competition authorities in Greece for imposing restrictions on its 5 Marinopoulos franchisees.
The retail giant’s Greek unit is being charged for infringing competition rules by “imposing resale price maintenance and restricting cross-supplies between members of its franchise network”.
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The Hellenic Competition Commission concluded that specific conditions in the franchise agreement amounted to resale price maintenance by requiring franchisees to follow Carrefour’s recommended prices.
The commission also found that the operation of a joint IT system, which formed an integral part of the network, rendered the management of prices by the franchisees difficult and time consuming in practice, facilitating price rigidity.
It has asked Carrefour Marinopoulos to refrain from infringing further and amend or withdraw the contractual terms. It has also threatened to impose a periodic EUR10,000 penalty payment in the case of non-compliance.
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By GlobalData
