Image: Apa/Menhart
The authority announced on Friday that it concerns the area of unfair trading practices in the sale of agricultural and food products.
The letter from the Federal Competition Authority has been noted and the matter is “currently being examined by the MPreis legal department,” the Tyrolean supermarket chain said upon request.
The FWBG came into force on January 1, 2022. The BWB was entrusted with the enforcement of the Fair Competition Conditions Act as an enforcement authority and is now submitting applications for fines on the basis of the FWBG for the first time. The BWB applied for a fine for each violation against a supplier. According to the Fair Competition Conditions Act, fines of up to 500,000 euros can be imposed by the cartel court for a violation of the ban on the use of unfair trading practices.
MPreis operates 279 supermarket branches in western Austria and South Tyrol and has a high market share, especially in Tyrol. The BWB received information that MPreis had sent so-called proforma invoices for various lump sum amounts to suppliers of agricultural and food products, although the payments requested were not related to the products they purchased. According to the competition watchdog, MPreis demanded payments to support a transformation process in the MPreis company.
According to the BWB, if payments were made, MPreis has already paid them back to the suppliers. The competition watchdogs pointed out in their release on Friday that under the Fair Competition Conditions Act, a buyer is prohibited from demanding payments from suppliers that are not related to the sale of the supplier’s agricultural and food products, provided there is an economic imbalance exists between the companies.
According to the BWB, prohibited “unfair” trading practices include, for example, unilateral contract changes, demanding payments that are not related to the sale of the supplier’s agricultural and food products, the unlawful use of trade secrets and the threat of retaliation if a company complains to the authorities wants to file a complaint.
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