The food sector has been a key area of interest for the European Commission and national competition authorities across Europe in the last two years. There is no sign of this abating with the Netherlands' and German competition authorities both reporting within the last week investigations into the flour, sweets, coffee and pet food sectors.

The Netherlands' Competition Authority announced this week that it has found evidence of a "big cartel" in the country's flour industry after commencing an investigation in 2009. The investigation comes after similar investigations in Germany, Italy and Belgium. Further details of the investigation can be found here (http://tinyurl.com/yjk2r9g).

The German Federal Cartel Office announced in the last week that it has raided manufacturers and retailers of sweets, coffee and pet food on suspicion of price fixing. In total, 15 companies were raided and others are reported as having been notified that they are under investigation.

Further details of this investigation can be found here (http://tinyurl.com/yzoqj6x ).

These investigations are clear evidence of the intention of national competition authorities in Europe to focus on the grocery sector. They are also consistent with the message given by the European Commission in its recent report on competition issues in the food supply chain for national competition authorities to maintain vigorous and coherent enforcement in the sector. Coming after a number of other investigations during 2008 and 2009 in the dairy, milk, flour, pasta, eggs, poultry, beef, vegetable, fruit, olive oil, chocolate, coffee and herbs markets, these investigations further illustrate that national competition authorities are increasingly cooperating to share information about these markets and competition concerns within them. Thus companies operating in the sector should not regard national territories and any competition issues arising within them in isolation.

Further information on the European Commission's report on competition issues in the food supply chain can be found here (www.law-now.com/law-now/2010/FoodsupplychainJan10.htm)

It is critical for companies operating in the food sector to have a thorough and effective compliance culture in place, and to have comprehensive and well organised dawn raid procedures.

This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq

Law-Now information is for general purposes and guidance only. The information and opinions expressed in all Law-Now articles are not necessarily comprehensive and do not purport to give professional or legal advice. All Law-Now information relates to circumstances prevailing at the date of its original publication and may not have been updated to reflect subsequent developments.

The original publication date for this article was 21/01/2010.