In 2020, the French Competition Authority fined ham production units of Les Mousquetaires Group a total of 25.1 million euros for their alleged participation in a cartel between manufacturers on the sales prices of cooked meat products to supermarkets, which would make no sense for Les Mousquetaires Group, both producer (via its production units) and retailer (via its points of sale).
The Group's entities appealed against this decision before the Paris Court of Appeal, which ruled that the participation of the Group's production units in such a cartel had not been established, for lack of evidence.
As a result, the fine initially imposed on the Group's production units for participating in this infringement has been annulled entirely.
The Paris Court of Appeal upheld a fine for exchanging purchasing information but reduced it from 6.7 to 5.7 million euros.
It is extremely rare for the Court of Appeal to make such reductions in fines imposed by the French Competition Authority in cartel cases.
The Mayer Brown team was led by Antitrust & Competition partner Nathalie Jalabert-Doury and included partners Jean-Maxime Blutel (Paris) and Aymeric de Moncuit (Brussels), counsel Guillaume De Meersman (Paris), associate Camille Worms (Brussels) and jurist Camille Hoogterp (Paris).
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