The European Commission announced on Monday the opening of an in-depth investigation against French supermarket firms Casino Guichard-Perrachon, known as Casino, and Les Mousqetaires , known as Intermarché , for allegedly coordinating its store and pricing strategy.
Brussels has explained in a statement that these are the two most important supermarket chains in France . In November 2014, they closed a collaboration agreement to centralize the sale of their products through a joint venture called INCA
The Community Executive suspects that both societies went "beyond the objective of their alliance" and initiated through it an "anti-competitive" behavior.
Specifically, the Commission's Competition services will investigate whether Casino and Intermarché coordinated their supermarket network strategies and their pricing policy; a practice that, if confirmed, would be a violation of European standards.
The Competition Commissioner, Margrethe Vestager , stressed that "building alliances between retailers" has become a "key component" for supply chains because "they can mean lower prices for consumers" who buy products daily.
"These benefits, however, can quickly disappear if retailers use these alliances to agree on their sales activities. The Commission will therefore investigate whether Casino and Intermarché have coordinated their activities in an anticompetitive manner," the Danish has summed up.
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