J. Sroczyński for WuW No. 6/2021 – Companies operating in the fitness sector and their managers have been penalised by the OCCP for illegal market sharing

The OCCP fined eight companies operating on the fitness market and six their managers for illegal market division. The coordinator of the collusion was Benefit Systems, which for five years agreed with its competitors on locations where new clubs could be opened. Benefit Systems played an important role in the agreement due to the fact that it is an operator of the popular MultiSport corporate card system, which other fitness chains also wanted to offer. However, the chains agreed not to expand into each other’s restricted areas. According to the OCCP, the stability of the market made it easier for Benefit Systems to take over smaller competitors. The acquisitions took place also during the antitrust investigation and increased the fine for Benefit Systems by taking into account the greater potential of the network. Benefit Systems received a fine of more than five million euro, with a total of seven million euro imposed on the undertakings. During the proceedings, Calypso Fitness filed a leniency application and reached a settlement with the OCCP, which reduced the penalty to 300 thousand euro. The managers were fined amounts ranging from eight to 60 thousand euro. The OCCP stressed that all the penalties were reduced due to the fitness industry’s difficulties related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The OCCP fined 80 thousand euro two suppliers of internal walls for a technological park organized by the Tarnobrzeg municipality. The winning bidder withdrew its offer in agreement with the runner-up, which resulted in the acceptance of the latter’s more costly offer.

The OCCP fined Polmass 550 thousand euro for dividing the market for animal foodstuffs with Agro-Netzwerk Polska. The companies agreed not to supply each other’s clients and were monitoring their sale activities. The agreement lasted for seven years and included also a ban on passive sales. Agro-Netwerk Polska avoided fines due to a successful leniency application.

For eight years, sports equipment retailer Spokey set minimum resale prices for distributors selling in online stores and on the Allegro platform. Spokey put pressure on resellers who charged lower prices than imposed, by threatening to stop deliveries. The fine imposed on Spokey by the OCCP amounted to 110 thousand euro. It was halved as a result of a leniency application, and Spokey could have received an additional 10% reduction if it had not withdrawn its declaration of voluntary submission to the fine.

The OCCP presented charges of market division and price fixing to Iveco Poland, 10 dealers of Iveco trucks, and 11 managers of these undertakings. The OCCP claims that the market division consisted in assigning to dealers so-called reference areas and obligating them to sell trucks only to clients from these areas. A special rebate system was qualified by the OCCP as supporting the market division. The parties to the proceedings were also allegedly sharing information about the applied prices to prevent offering trucks at lower prices.

The OCCP accepted commitments offered by the Polish Post to end practices abusing a dominant market position on the postal services market, affecting independent postal operators using the regulated services of the Polish Post. The OCCP has found that the Polish Post required the operators to provide commercial data concerning their clients, which could result in taking over those clients by the Polish Post. The OCCP has found that the Polish Post did not apply any price list but charged prices on an individual basis. Independent operators were also required to determine the precise number of shipments in a given period and if even one shipment was lacking, the price was raised to the level applied for insignificant number of shipments. The questioned practices lasted for the last five years. The Polish Post committed to eliminate them in future dealings.    

J. Sroczyński, Wirtschaft und Wettbewerb. Developments in national competition law, No. 6/2021.