First penalty case in the new civil-law penalty system
The Danish Competition Council has now brought the first civil-law penalty case before the Maritime and Commercial High Court. It is brought against Botex for having concluded within the chain an internal agreement which, according to the Competition Council, qualified as illegal market sharing in violation of the Danish Competition Act. This is the first time the Competition Council itself claims a fine before national courts after the Competition Act was amended in March 2021 due to the implementation of the ECN+ Directive.
Background
For 12 years, the voluntary chain Boligtextilbranchens Indkøbsservice a.m.b.a. (Botex) maintained an internal agreement under which each independent member company of the chain was assigned its own marketing area. Areas were allocated among members on the basis of postcodes, and members were not to advertise their services through house-to-house distribution in areas allocated to the other members.
The Competition Council decided on 22 June 2022 that the agreement was in effect a market sharing agreement and thus an anti-competitive agreement prohibited under the Competition Act.
The Council issued in that connection a customary cease-and-desist order to Botex effective immediately.
First case in new civil-law penalty system
At the same time, the Competition Council decided to bring the matter before the Maritime and Commercial High Court, seeking a civil-law penalty for breach of the Competition Act.
The case will be the first to be heard in the new civil-law penalty system introduced after an amendment to the Competi-tion Act took effect on 4 March 2021. The amendment was made in implementation of the ECN+ Directive, under which national competition authorities must have authority to bring non-criminal (civil) penalty proceedings against companies in a national court of law.
Read the Competition Council’s decision of 22 June 2022 about market sharing in Botex (in Danish).
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