The European Court of Justice forecast defeat Tuesday for endive producers challenging a nearly $5 million price-fixing fine by French regulators.
France’s Court of Cessation invited the EU’s highest court to weigh in on a challenge by producers of the leafy vegetable endive after the French Competition Authority sanctioned them in 2012 for 14 years of anti competitive practices.
The 18 challengers include both endive producers and trade groups. They claimed that their practices did not fall within the scope of anti competitive agreements, decisions and concerted actions that EU law prohibits.
“As the Court has already held, the common organisations of the markets in agricultural products are not a competition-free zone,” the ruling states.
“On the contrary, the maintenance of effective competition on the markets for agricultural products is one of the objectives of the common agricultural policy and of the common organisation of the markets.”
Common market organisation can qualify for exemption from EU competition rules, but the judges said “that practice must have been implemented by an entity that is actually entitled to do so under the rules governing the common organisation of that market, and, therefore, has been recognised by a member state.”
“A practice adopted within an entity not recognised by a member state in pursuance of one of those objectives cannot therefore escape the prohibition of the practices,” the ruling states.
The judge called this “likely to be the case” when it comes to the practices of professional organisations representing endive producers — noting that “there is nothing in the case file to show that they have been recognised by the French authorities as POs [producer organisations], APOs [associations of POs] or inter branch organisations.”
Source: courthousenews.com