Three Israeli supermarket chains have been indicted by the country’s competition watchdog over allegations of breaching national food laws through price fixing.
In a court filing issued last week, the Israel Competition Authority (ICA) made seven charges against the Victory, Yochananof and Super Bareket supermarkets and their chief executives.
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Some of the indictments include suspected intervention with prices of products sold at other retailers, and making an “restrictive arrangement” to control prices.
Reports from news agency Reuters suggest the charges follow on from a three-year investigation into the retailers.
Both Yochananof and Victory filed statements on the Tel Aviv stock exchange on Wednesday (19 February), indicating they had both received the indictment notices.
Yochananof said it thought it had “good arguments” for the suspected offences, while Victory said both the group and its CEO Eyal Ravid “have good grounds in relation to the allegations”.
Super Bareket could not be reached for comment at the time of writing.
The ICA claimed Victory and Yochanof’s chief executives agreed in a conversation to delay launching further price promotions besides those that are set in advance such as seasonal promotions.
The suspected move, the ICA said, was made “under the market conditions that prevailed at the time, in which the retail market as a whole experienced a decrease in the volume of sales with no change in market shares”.
Israel’s anti-trust body also alleged that Victory and Super Bareket had a “restrictive arrangement” around the price of their disposable plastic utensils, following Israel’s introduction of tax on disposable utensils made with plastic in 2021.
The ICA claimed both parties agreed to price disposable plastic utensils in a manner that would ensure “each of them, as a rule, maintained their gross profit rate compared to their gross profit rate before the regulations came into force, at the very least”.
Victory’s CEO Ravid has also been charged with allegedly intervening in consumer prices of suppliers’ products at other retailers, including pickled foods maker Beit Hashita.
