ROMANIA: The Competition Council will finalize in Q2 an investigation into the retail market | Progresiv

In the second quarter of this year, the Competition Council will finalize an investigation started three years ago, targeting retailers Cora, Carrefour and Kaufland. The reason for this is a potential violation of market rules on establishing the shelf sale pricing.

"We investigate whether in the relationship with suppliers they have limited the price drop during promotions. We will have a result in the second quarter of this year. If it is confirmed, the maximum fine is up to 10% of the turnover, but it other similar cases it was 2%", said Bogdan Chiritoiu, President of the Competition Council.

In 2015, the Competition Council fined Metro, Real, Selgros, Mega Image retail chains and 21 of their local suppliers for about 35 million euros for shelf pricing arrangements and company behavior during promotions.

"The Competition Council found that shelf sale prices were not set according to market rules by the ratio between supply and demand, but the supplier and the retailer set a fixed or minimum price. This practice leads to higher prices for the end consumer, and the retailer cannot drop the price below the established supplier's limit", the 2015 Competition Council press release said.

Auchan Romania, which since 2015 has taken over the Real stores, managed to annul the fine of 23.87 million lei for the Real Hypermarket at the Bucharest Court of Appeal, while Selgros had also reduced its fine by a court order.