More than half a billion zlotys in fines for Biedronka

The president of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, Tomasz Chróstny, who was mentioned in the entry, said that this is a judgment that is important to the entire market. “We protect Polish suppliers and food producers,” he said.

That office added in its oral justification, the court emphasized the “significant advantage of the Biedronka chain over suppliers” and shared the position of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection. “The chain has an obligation to conclude contracts and refrain from unilateral price changes,” he said. At the same time, it was emphasized that the judgment is not final and Jeronimo Martins Polska, the owner of the Biedronka series, has the right to appeal.

Biedronka, at the request of the Polish Press Agency for comment, said that relations with Polish suppliers have been based on “the foundation of transparency and honesty” for almost 30 years.

“Price negotiations are intended to bring benefits to Polish consumers, allowing us, together with our partners, to offer the highest quality products at the lowest prices on the market,” the source said. guaranteed discount.

Speaking about the court’s judgment, the company said it drew attention to “the wide-ranging flaws of the decision punishing Jeronimo Martins Polska (…)”. “In addition, the court also pointed out the lack of justification for treating all suppliers according to the same criteria,” Biedronka emphasized.

As a result, as reported by the network, the court changed the decision of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection and dismissed the fine for PLN 220 million.

“Only in the case of 7 suppliers out of 214 from the ‘fruits and vegetables’ group did the court, in our opinion, inappropriately assess that the company (Biedronka) had a contractual advantage and only because the scope of concessions granted exceeds. for other suppliers,” said Biedronka. .

At the end of 2020, the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection fined Jeronimo Martins Polska PLN 723 million, explaining that it had “earned money unfairly at the expense of food suppliers.” ” That was then explained retail chains receive trade discounts from suppliers to buy products at the best prices, and “good practice and legal regulations” require that they be included in the contract, but this is not always the case true

“The information collected (…) during the proceedings and inspections in the offices of this entrepreneur shows that the company applied discounts in an irregular way,” said the Office Competition and Consumer Protection It was explained that within three years (ie 2018, 2019 and 2020) Jeronimo Martins Polska earned “more than PLN 600 million from questioning practices”.

During this time Biedronka’s operations were to affect more than 200 entities, with 80 percent concerned with the supply of fruit and vegetables. “In actual cases, the amount of unfair discounting exceeded 20 percent of the total turnover generated by Biedronka,” he said.

He explained that contractors were to be notified of the need to provide a discount immediately after delivery.

“Therefore, when they ended the contract, they did not know how much they would earn, because at any time the owner of Biedronka could ask for a reduction in their salary by giving an additional discount of a known amount ,” the office explained.

He added that suppliers agreed to unfavorable conditions due to Biedronka’s market power. He explained that they feared that “ending the collaboration could mean even greater financial losses.”