The GVH takes action to reduce the prices of basic foodstuff

It has become common practice for several food market interest groups to issue announcements stating that the prices of certain products need to be increased. Some announcements indicate in percentage or nominal terms the amount of producer or processor price increases that would be justified for certain basic foodstuffs.

The President of the GVH drew the attention of several interest groups to the fact that the applied practice could presumably lead to uniform pricing and increase inflationary pressure. In the letters of formal notice, Csaba Balázs Rigó wrote that there is a presumed cause-and-effect relationship between the increase in the prices of basic foodstuffs and the announcements issued by the interest groups from time to time proposing price increases or declaring them necessary. Based on all of this,

“the issuance of the announcements could have led to a coordinated price increase that could fall under the scope of the Competition Act and, especially in an inflationary market environment, could result in a coordinated price policy that goes against the criterion of making independent market decisions”

– the President of the GVH explained.

As he wrote, the starting point for the assessment of agreements between enterprises under competition law is that enterprises make their market decisions independently, avoiding market behavior coordinated with competitors.