Artificially inflating the price of products: This is what the EU Commission accuses the chocolate giant Mondelez of and has imposed a million-euro fine on the producer of Milka chocolate.
According to investigations by the EU Commission, chocolate giant Mondelez has distorted competition for years and artificially made its products more expensive. As a result, the authority today imposed a fine of 337.5 million euros on the company, as the competition watchdog announced. Mondelez produces a number of well-known products, including Milka chocolate, Toblerone, Daim, Oreo, Mikado, Philadelphia and Tuc.
The Commission accuses the company of trying to prevent cross-border trade between countries with different prices. “Through these illegal practices, Mondelez was able to continue charging higher prices for its own products, which ultimately was to the detriment of consumers in the EU,” said the EU Commission.
22 anti-competitive agreement
In January 2021, the EU Commission had already opened an official procedure. The authority has now announced that Mondelez was involved in 22 anti-competitive agreements or concerted practices. For example, one agreement required Mondelez customers to charge higher prices for exports than for domestic sales. “These agreements and concerted practices took place between 2012 and 2019 and affected all EU markets,” the Commission said.
In addition, Mondelez refused to supply a broker in Germany. The US company wanted to prevent the resale of chocolate bar products in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria and Romania because the prices in Germany were cheaper.
The penalty was actually supposed to be even higher. Because Mondelez cooperated with the EU Commission and explicitly acknowledged its responsibility, the company was granted a 15 percent reduction in the fine, according to the competition authorities.