The case originates back to 2010, when the grocery chains entered into an industry standard for comparative advertising which included regulations on access to each other’s stores to collect prices. This standard was further expanded in 2011 and 2012, and, according to the NCA, enables the grocery stores to collect large quantities of price information. It is worth noting that the NCA was informed of the industry standard at the time.
Increased price hunting activities
The NCA has found that the illegal cooperation lasted from January 2011, and at least until the NCA’s unannounced inspections in April 2018. During this time, price hunting activities increased, so that the chains eventually received updates on competitor prices several times a day.
According to the NCA, the price hunter arrangement has led to a transparent market where the incentive to lower prices has been significantly reduced as competitors would immediately follow any price decrease. At the same time, the risk of increasing prices was also reduced, as a chain could immediately see if their competitor followed the price increase.
Investigation switched to anticompetative effects case
The case was initially considered by the NCA as an object infringement, and in December 2020, the NCA issued a Statement of Objection with an estimated fine totaling NOK 21 billion (EUR 1.8 billion). However, following the NCA’s loss in the Competition Appeals Tribunal in the Bokbasencase which also concerned exchange of information about current prices, the NCA announced in January 2024 that they would discontinue the investigation of the price hunter arrangement as a by object case, and switch to investigate this as an anticompetitive effects case.
A new Statement of Objections with adjusted fines was issued in April 2024, and the fines are now imposed: NOK 2.3 billion (EUR 200 million) to NorgesGruppen and NOK 1.3 billion (EUR 120 million) to each of Coop and Rema 1000 are in line with this. The fines are by far the highest fines imposed in a competition case in Norway.
The NCA’s decision is not yet published, but an extensive press release is available here.
Although this marks the end of the NCA’s lengthy investigation, the case is far from over. All three grocery chains have announced that they will challenge the decision before the Competition Appeals Tribunal.
