competitionlaw

Over the 2005-2007 period Billa bought seven supermarkets in the Milan area from an Italian retailer, Esselunga. Each of these transactions amounted to a concentration under the Italian merger control law. Because all the transactions exceeded the statutory financial threshold, the buyer was subject to the pre-emptive notification obligation laid down by Article 16 of the Act 287/90. However, Billa notified the transactions to the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) only after having implemented them. The AGCM found the Billa late notifications to be in breach of the compulsory notification obligation and imposed on it a fine of Euro 30.000,00 ( case C10380, Billa/& Punti Vendita Esselunga ). In determining the fine, the AGCM took into account that Billa did not voluntarily infringe the Article 16 notification obligation, but it only erred in interpreting the scope of obligation. A further relevant element was the fact that Billa spontaneously notified the transaction once it

According to the European Commission’s definition, category management is an agreement by which, within a distribution agreement, the distributor entrusts the supplier or category captain with the marketing of a category of products. It is still uncertain which effects on competition category management may have. On one hand, it may improve economic efficiency by enabling producers to have a better understanding of consumers' needs. On the other hand, such agreement may drive category captains’ competitors off the market. Moreover, category management allows exchange of sensitive data which may facilitate collusion between producers or between producers and supermarket chains. The US antitrust community has already examined the above issues and the US antitrust authorities had already dealt with category management in the US Tobacco and Gruma Corporation cases. Across the Atlantic also the debate on the competition impact of category management is gaining momentum with the European