Unilever defended its interests in court
2023.01.19 07:07
Unilever defended its interests in court
By Ray Johnson
Budrigannews.com – Unilever, a consumer goods company (NYSE:) over a 65 million euro fine imposed by Italy’s competition authority, secured a partial victory on Thursday at the highest court of the European Union.
In 2017, the Italian competition and markets authority (AGCM) determined that Unilever had abused its “Algida” brand’s dominant position in ice cream at bars, beach resorts, and campsites.
Operators of stores were subject to exclusivity clauses imposed by independent distributors, preventing them from selling ice cream made by rivals. One example is the small popsicle maker La Bomba, which filed a complaint with Italian authorities.
To demonstrate that the practice did not exclude competitors, Unilever produced economic studies; however, the AGCM stated that it did not have to analyze them, prompting Unilever to appeal to Italy’s Council of State. It referred two questions to the European Union’s Court of Justice.
First, it determined that distributors’ abusive behavior could be attributed to Unilever if the distributors did not adopt the behavior independently.
Second, it looked into whether the AGCM should have looked at Unilever’s economic analysis to see if the exclusivity clauses could exclude competitors from the market.
According to the court, the competition authority should have looked at the evidence that could show that the practices at issue wouldn’t exclude efficient competitors.
