by Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Casino and Intermarché won the support of Europe’s highest court on Thursday in their fight against the European Commission’s attempt to investigate the alliance to buy French retail groups.
The case underscores the growing willingness of some companies to challenge the European Union’s (EU) competition watchdog against what they believe to be excessive regulation and abusive demands for information.
In 2017, the European Commission ordered companies to submit to an inspection linked to suspicions of anti-competitive practices. She then launched an investigation into their 2014 buying alliance, which was disbanded in 2018.
Casino and Intermarché opposed the actions and took their case to the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which overturned the EU executive’s decision.
The judges said the Commission “did not hold sufficiently serious indicia” with the information obtained to justify its demands of the companies.
The CJEU also criticized the EU executive for not having recorded the interviews with the companies’ suppliers.
“This obligation applies regardless of whether the interview in question was conducted before the formal opening of an investigation, in order to gather indications of an offence, or afterwards, with the aim of gathering evidence of an offence,” the court said.
(Foo Yun Chee report; Victor Goury-Laffont, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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