Casino, Intermarche win fight against EU antitrust regulators

Author: Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Casino and Intermarche on Thursday won the backing of Europe’s Supreme Court in their fight against EU competition regulators and a bid to investigate the purchasing alliance of French supermarket groups.

The case highlights the growing willingness of some companies to challenge the EU’s competition watchdog over what they see as excessive use of the rules and excessive requests for information.

In 2017, the European Commission ordered companies to undergo inspections on suspicion of anti-competitive practices. It then launched an investigation into the 2014 purchasing alliance, which was dissolved in 2018.

Casino and Intermarche protested against these actions and took the case to the highest courts in Europe.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), based in Luxembourg, invalidated the decision of the EU antitrust regulator.

The judges found that the information obtained by the Commission to justify its claims against the companies “was not supported by sufficiently serious circumstantial evidence.”

The CJEU also criticized the competition authority for failing to record conversations with the companies’ suppliers.

“This obligation applies regardless of whether the interview in question was conducted before the formal initiation of the investigation, for the purpose of collecting evidence of a violation, or afterwards, for the purpose of collecting evidence of a violation,” the court said.

These cases are C-682/20 P Les Mousquetaires et ITM Entreprises v Commission, C-690/20 P Casino, Guichard-Perrachon et Achats Marchandises Casino v Commission and C-693/20 P Intermarché Casino Achats v Commission.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)