Casino, Intermarche win fight against EU antitrust regulators

By Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Casino and Intermarche on Thursday won the backing of Europe’s top court in their fight against EU antitrust regulators and their attempt to investigate the French supermarket groups’ buying alliance.

This case highlights the willingness of some companies to challenge EU competition watchdogs on their perceived regulatory overreach and unreasonable demands for information.

On suspicion of anti-competitive behavior, the European Commission in 2017 had ordered companies to be subject to an inspection. The European Commission launched an investigation into the 2014 buying alliance, which ended in 2018.

Intermarche, Casino and Intermarche protested and went to Europe’s most prestigious courts.

Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that the EU antitrust watchdog had been invalidated.

Judges affirmed that information obtained from the Commission was sufficient to justify its demands on the companies “are not substantiated by sufficiently serious indicia”.

CJEU also condemned the failure to interview suppliers for the purposes of competition agencies.

“That obligation applies irrespective of whether the interview in question was conducted before the formal opening of an investigation, in order to collect indicia of an infringement, or afterwards, for the purpose of collecting evidence of an infringement,” The court ruled.

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

(Reporting from Foo Yunchee. Editing by Elaine Hardcastle.