The Bundeskartellamt has imposed fines totaling approx. € 30 million on eight coffee roasters and the German Coffee Association, Hamburg, (Deutscher Kaffeeeverband e.V., DKV) as well as ten employees responsible on grounds of price fixing in the so-called out-of-house market (supply of bulk customers). The eight companies involved are
- Kraft Foods Außer Haus Service GmbH, Bremen,
- Tchibo GmbH, Hamburg,
- J.J. Darboven GmbH & Co. KG, Hamburg,
- Melitta SystemService GmbH & Co. Kommanditgesellschaft, Minden,
- Luigi Lavazza Deutschland GmbH, Frankfurt,
- Seeberger KG, Ulm,
- Segafredo Zanetti Deutschland GmbH, Munich, and
- Gebr. Westhoff GmbH & Co. KG, Bremen.
The proceedings were triggered by a leniency application filed by Alois Dallmayr Kaffee oHG, Munich; consequently, Dallmayr has not been fined. Melitta and Darboven were granted a reduction of their fines for their cooperation in the proceedings in clarifying the accusations.
The President of the Bundeskartellamt, Andreas Mundt, stated: “Coordinated price increases for consumer goods such as coffee have a direct impact on consumers’ wallets. Cartels appear in all kinds of industries. They are highly damaging to society and therefore have to be rigorously prosecuted.”
Working group of directors and sales managers
To the Bundeskartellamt’s knowledge a working group of directors and sales managers of the coffee roasters existed within the DKV from at least 1997 to mid 2008. The group coordinated price increases and to some extent price cuts for roasted coffee in the so-called out-of-house market (supply of gastronomy sector, hotels, vending machine operators and other bulk customers). The group of companies concerned therefore differs partly from the cartel of coffee roasters fined last December which supplied coffee to the food retail sector (cf. Bundeskartellamt press release of 21 December 2009).
According to the Bundeskartellamt’s knowledge, in the current case the two price increases from early 2005 (increase of up to € 1.40/kg) and early 2008 (increase of up to € 0.90/kg), for example, were coordinated by the group.
With DKV, an association was also directly involved because, at the request of the cartel members, it had announced and supported the price increase of early 2005 in its own press release. DKV admitted to and expressed regret for the infringement in a separate press release.
Stage of proceedings
The orders imposing the fines are not yet final. However, six of the eight companies and their employees have already agreed to have their proceedings terminated by way of a settlement.
Apart from the two proceedings which have now been concluded against coffee roasters in the food retail trade and out-of-house market, the Bundeskartellamt is still conducting proceedings against cappuccino manufacturers on suspicion of fixing the price of cappuccino. These proceedings are expected to be concluded by the middle of this year. 