The Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS) has stopped administrative proceedings with the COOP Centrum družstvo retail chain due to possible abuse of significant market power. The reason is that the chain has proposed measures to eliminate the problem and commit itself to remedying it, ÚOHS announced.
“During the administrative proceedings, ÚOHS found several less serious errors, which occurred from 1 January 2017 to 30 November 2020. COOP negotiated quantity discounts with some suppliers, which, however, were not set appropriately and did not provide any incentive for customers to purchase more goods. Other offenses concerned non-compliance with the mandatory requirements required by the Act on Significant Market Power,” ÚOHS said.
The supply chain offered the Office to accept commitments which ÚOHS assessed as sufficient. “In particular, COOP undertook to adjust its business conditions for the sale of food to existing and new suppliers in the sections concerning central invoicing, the calculation of the quantity rebate and market research agreements,” ÚOHS said.
The task of the COOP is to inform ÚOHS about the measures taken and to introduce systemic measures in the future that will prevent violations of the Act on Significant Market Power in the sale of agricultural and food products.
In the past, ÚOHS imposed fines in the order of tens of millions of crowns for the abuse of significant market power. For example, Makro, Billa or Penny Market received fines. In the case of the Globus chain, ÚOHS ultimately preferred supplier compensation to the fine.
Ounce: ÚOHS and CTK
