Record penalty for REWE and SPAR: OGH imposes millions of millions!

Record penalty for REWE and SPAR: OGH imposes millions of millions!

In a groundbreaking judgment, the Supreme Court (OGH) in Austria increased the cartel penalty for the retail group REWE to record -breaking 70 million euros. This sentence is the largest that has ever been imposed in Austria. The original amount of 1.5 million euros was raised after it was found that Rewe had not registered a merger in the context of price agreements when taking out sales areas in Welas Park Shopping Center in Wels, as well as OE24 reported .

Another difficult defeat also had to take up the SPAR trading company. The OGH increased the original punishment due to price agreements in dairy products to shocking 30 million euros. In the first instance, Spar had got away with only 3 million euros. This decision marks one of the highest antitrust penalties in Austria's history and leaves the future of SPAR open in relation to further criminal investigations in other product groups, including beer and flour. According to The Press found that SPAR aimed to keep its sellers to hold price levels at competitors, which is classified as an anti-antitrust was.

records and strategic failure

These two cases show that the OGH takes the enforcement of competition law in Austria seriously. The reasons for decision of the OGH underline the need for deterrent due to correspondingly high fines, a height is required that exceeds the potential gain of the antitrust -like agreements. While Spar emphasizes that no damage to the consumers had occurred, the high punishment is likely to question its credibility. The true winner of the current developments could be the market that is strengthened by such profound decisions.