French competition authority fines LDC subsidiary

The Competition Authority of France fined La Toque Angevine after the company was implicated in a conspiracy to fix the volumes and prices for sandwiches.

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(Davide Guglielmo | Freeimages.com)
(Davide Guglielmo | Freeimages.com)

The Competition Authority of France fined La Toque Angevine after the company was implicated in a conspiracy to fix the volumes and prices for sandwiches.

La Toque Angevine is a subsidiary of LDC, the largest poultry company in France and in Europe.

Also implicated in the conspiracy were Roland Monterrat and Daunat. Collectively, the three represent dominate the French private label sandwich production market.

“These practices are by nature very serious. By dividing up markets and agreeing on prices, the three main manufacturers of private label industrial sandwiches, which represent nearly 90% of the market or almost all sales of private label sandwiches, have hindered free play. competition. They were thus able to raise their prices without fear of a response from their competitors,” the Competition Authority stated on its website.

“The agreement, secret and relatively sophisticated, has been remarkably stable over time. It continued uninterrupted for nearly 6 years (i.e. between September 2010 and September 2016), without any participant deviating or attempting to deviate from the agreement. Adherence to the practices was such that no retaliation was necessary.”

According to the authority, the three sandwich producers developed and implemented a plan to share volumes and customers and to agree on prices from September 2010 to September 2016.

All three companies were given the option to be subject to an inspection of their operations and be granted leniency in their sanctions. Roland Monterrat was the first to request leniency, and was able to escape all sanctions.

La Toque Angevine was granted 35% leniency for a fine of EUR15.574 million (US$18.517 million), while Daunat was granted 30% leniency for a EUR9 million fine.

According to the WATTPoultry.com Top Companies Database, LDC is the largest poultry producer in Europe, with 86 production facilities in the continent. It ranks as the 11th largest poultry company in the world, slaughtering 578.5 million broilers annually.

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