The French Competition Authority fines an anti-competitive agreement allocating organic brands across distribution channels

On 16 April 2026, the French Competition Authority imposed fines totaling EUR 12.67 million

on the National Union of Specialized Distributors Synadis Bio, as well as on the retailers Greenweez (Carrefour), ITM Entreprises and Les Comptoirs de la Bio, for participating in an anti-competitive agreement aimed at allocating organic food brands between two distribution channels: (i) specialized organic stores and (ii) generalist grocery retailers.

The agreement

In essence, the Authority found that Synadis Bio promoted, within its internal bodies and subsequently through its internal rules adopted in 2018, a collective strategy designed to prevent the same organic brands from being sold through both distribution channels (specialized stores and generalist retailers). The objective was to avoid product and price comparability between the two networks, in order to protect the commercial positioning of specialized distributors and to avoid downward pressure on prices.

From a competition law perspective, such coordination bears the hallmarks of market sharing and constitutes a restriction by object, since it seeks to limit competition between operators that would normally be expected to compete freely for the listing and sale of the same brands.

The economic context

The Authority points out that, between 2016 and 2020, large generalist grocery retailers significantly strengthened their position in the organic products market, while the market share of specialized stores declined. Against this competitive background, the association and some of the members and participants concerned sought to maintain a strict separation of supply, so that the same brands would not be distributed simultaneously through specialized networks and generalist retail networks.

The evidences

The French Authority highlights classic forms of evidence in cartel cases: minutes of board meetings, discussions relating to membership applications, as well as internal rules requiring that the overwhelming majority of packaged organic food products come from brands distributed exclusively through specialized stores.

The Authority also found that certain companies (in particular Greenweez, Les Comptoirs de la Bio and ITM Entreprises) were not mere bystanders, but actively and individually participated in that coordination, expressly committing to comply with the “codes” of specialized organic distribution and to avoid any “mixing” of brands and any aggressive pricing policy. The total amount of the fines was allocated as follows:

• EUR 10 million for Synadis Bio,

• EUR 1.85 million for Greenweez (jointly and severally with Carrefour SA – the parent

company),

• EUR 740,000 for ITM Entreprises (jointly and severally with Les Mousquetaires – the

parent company) and

• EUR 80,000 for Les Comptoirs de la Bio.

The Authority also underlined that this is only the second time it has applied the new provisions of Article L.464-2 of the French Commercial Code, which allow it to calculate the financial penalty imposed on an association of undertakings by reference to the aggregate worldwide turnover of its members, capped at 10% of that amount.

The French Authority’s decision confirms that, under competition law, it is not only explicit price-fixing agreements that are problematic, but also any collective mechanism through which operators allocate brands, customers, channels or market segments among themselves in order to reduce competitive pressure.