The food delivery company Delivery Hero, headquartered in Berlin, has been in the focus of EU competition authorities for some time. Now Brussels is taking the next step.
The EU Commission has officially initiated proceedings against the food delivery service Delivery Hero due to suspected antitrust violations. Specifically, the authority assumes that the company may have exchanged information on prices and strategies with another company in an anti-competitive manner. This concerns Glovo, which has its headquarters in Spain. Glovo also earns its money in the delivery service industry.
The Commission had already carried out unannounced inspections at Delivery Hero in Berlin and Barcelona in November. Delivery Hero announced at the time that it was cooperating fully with the authorities. The company is based in Berlin. However, Delivery Hero does not operate its own delivery service in Germany.
“Delivery Hero and Glovo are among the largest food delivery services in Europe,” the Commission said. Delivery Hero held a minority stake in Glovo from July 2018 and took sole control of the company in July 2022. The Brussels authority currently assumes that agreements may have taken place before this takeover.
Fine of more than 400 million possible
A good two weeks ago, Delivery Hero announced that it could face a fine of more than 400 million euros for potential violations of EU antitrust law. Up until then, the Berlin-based company had only set aside 186 million euros for the conflict. Accordingly, the company announced a significant increase in the corresponding provision.
In addition to agreements on sensitive information such as prices, the EU Commission suspects that Delivery Hero and Glovo may have agreed not to poach workers from each other. There is also the allegation that the two companies may have divided up markets locally between themselves. The Commission stresses that it has not yet reached a final conclusion as to whether the two companies have broken EU rules.
Source: Stern
