EU slaps Mondelez with €337.5m fine

Oreo cookie and Cadbury Dairy Milk parent Mondelez has been fined €337.5m by the European Commission for hindering trade between European Union countries in order to keep prices high.

EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager said on Thursday that Mondelez had illegally limited cross-border sales within the EU to maintain higher prices for its products.

"This case is about the price of groceries. It's a key concern to European citizens and even more obviously in times of very high inflation, where many are in a cost-of-living crisis," she added.

The European Commission, which began its probe into Mondelez back in 2019, found that the US company had intentionally restricted cross-border trade and abused "its dominant position" in certain national markets for the sale of its chocolate bars.

Mondelez ceased supplying chocolate bars in the Netherlands to prevent them from being imported into Belgium, where it was selling the same products at higher prices, according to the European Union's executive arm.

"The commission concluded that Mondelez's illegal practices prevented retailers from being able to freely source products in member states with lower prices," it said.

According to the EU, Mondelez's illegal practices date as far back as 2006 and include refusing to supply a wholesaler in Germany in order to prevent the resale of chocolate bars in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria and Romania where prices were higher.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com