Bercy accused the European purchasing center of the E. Leclerc group of not respecting French law, considering the French courts incompetent in the matter.
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CUEJ) ruled in favor of the European purchasing center of the E. Leclerc group once morest Bercy, which accused it of not respecting French law, considering the French courts incompetent in the matter. matter, according to the decision consulted by AFP, and confirming information from LSA and Les Echos.
“Next step before the Paris Court of Appeal”
“We have taken note of the CJEU’s judgment and will analyze it in detail in order to determine our position during the rest of the procedure. The next step will be in a few weeks before the Paris Court of Appeal”, added indicated this Monday, December 26 the Ministry of the Economy to AFP.
According to the judgment delivered last Thursday, Bercy had carried out an investigation between 2016 and 2018 “which led it to suspect the existence of practices possibly restrictive of competition implemented in Belgium by Eurelec with regard to suppliers established in France. “.
Eurelec, a company incorporated under Belgian law, is a purchasing center founded by the French group E. Leclerc and the German group Rewe.
“Indeed, according to this investigation, Eurelec would force suppliers to accept price reductions without compensation, in violation of the Commercial Code, and would impose on them the application of Belgian law to contracts concluded, in order to circumvent the law French”, continues the CUEJ, explaining the subject of the dispute.
The Paris Commercial Court had declared itself competent to judge the case, but Eurelec had objected that a French court might not have jurisdiction in the matter and had therefore appealed once morest this decision.
The Paris Court of Appeal turned to the Court of Justice of the European Union, which ruled in favor of Eurelec.
In September 2020, the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention imposed a fine of 6.34 million euros on Eurelec for “alleged non-compliance with French regulations relating to the formalism of negotiations between suppliers and distributors”.
