Production and Sale of Margarine and Butter

The Hellenic Competition Commission, in plenary session, upon an ex officio investigation by the Directorate-General for Competition into the violation of Articles 1 and 2 of Greek Law 703/1977 (now Articles 1 and 2 of the Greek Competition Act 3959/2011) as well as Articles 81 and 82 EC Treaty (now Articles 101 and 102 TFEU), by the company registered as ELAIS-UNILEVER with regards to the cooperation agreements of the company with retail sellers and wholesalers for the trade of margarine products found that:

• Unanimously, ELAIS-UNILEVER violated article 2 of Greek Law 703/77 (now article 2 of the Greek Competition Act 3959/2011) and article 102 TFEU (through offering abusive targeted discounts and with the clause of non display of products by competitors) for the time period of 19/06/2002 until 21/10/2008, and
• By majority, that ELAIS-UNILEVER violated article 1 of Greek Law 703/77, Article 1 of the Greek Competition Act 3959/2011 and article 101 TFEU with its involvement in a prohibited vertical concerted practice (resale price maintenace, prohibition of active and passive sales, non-competition clauses) for the time period of 26/09/1996 until 31/12/2017.

The Commission also decided and imposed:

• Unanimously, to the company ELAIS-UNILEVER a fine of eight million six hundred and sixty-nine thousand three hundred and seventy Euros and eleven cents (€8,669,370.11) for the identified violations of Article 2 of Greek Law 703/77 and Article 102 TFEU and
• By majority, a fine of eighteen million eight hundred and ninety-two thousand three hundred and thirty-four Euros and fifty-eight cents for the identified violation of Articles 1 of Greek Law 307/77 (now Article 1 of the Greek COmpetition Act 3959/2011) and Article 101 TFEU.

Additionally, the Commission obliged the company ELAIS-UNILEVER to cease the, as identified above, violations of Article 1 of Greek Law 703/77, Article 1 of the Greek Competition Act 3959/2011 and Article 101 TFEU and to avoid the identified violations of Articles 1 of Greek Law 703/77, 1 of the Greek Competition Act 3959/2011, 101 TFEU and 2 of Greek Law 703/77 (now 2 of the Greek Competition Act 3959/2011), 102 TFEU in the future and threatened the company ELAIS-UNILEVER with a monetary fine of ten thousand Euros (€10,000) per day of non-compliance with the above measures, from the day of publication of the decision.