Competition Council fines retailers for the first time in three years

The Competition Council yesterday fined discounter chain Profi and fruit and vegetable supplier Interfruct 4 million euros for fixing shelf prices for the products delivered to the Bucharest stores of the retailer. This is the first penalty incurred by the retail companies on the local market in the last three years.

“The probe targeted Profi/Interfruct relation for only 10 Profi stores in Bucharest, whose fruit and vegetable section management was fully taken over by Interfruct, which acted as the owner of the fruit and vegetables sold, pursuant to the legal stipulations in force,” Gabriel Pâslaru, Profi’s PR representative told ZF.

The fine Profi got amounts to 3.6 million euros, considering the penalty applies to both Profi Food Rom and Albinuța Shops, a retail chain that Profi bought in 2007. Interfruct, the other company penalised, got an about 400,000 euro fine.