A court in Germany has rejected an appeal by German drug store chain Dirk Rossman against a ruling that it engaged in price-fixing for roasted coffee it sold.
Law firm Ashurst reported that the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court rejected an appeal by the company and imposed a €30 million fine for vertical price-fixing agreements for roasted coffee products with Melitta Kaffee.
The fine is almost six times higher than the €5.25 million originally imposed by the Federal Cartel Office (FCO).
Quoting public sources, Ashurst said the court has confirmed the FCO’s findings of December 2015 and held Rossmann guilty of having intentionally engaged in illegal vertical price-fixing.
According to the findings, Melitta concluded an agreement with various retailers of roasted coffee products at the end of 2004 (one of which was Rossmann, whose participation in the agreement commenced in 2005) pursuant to which the retailers agreed not to sell Melitta roasted coffee products below a certain minimum resale price. As part of this agreement, Melitta agreed to monitor retailers to ensure that they respected the agreed minimum resale prices.
Ashurst partner Ute Zinsmeister and counsel Maria Held said the court used a different method to calculate the fine than that used the FCO.
Another law firm, CMS, said Rossmann was the only company involved that decided not to take part in settlement agreements which were reached between Bundeskartellamt, Melitta and its distributors, rejecting a deal with the authority and appealing the fine to the courts.
Rossman said it will appeal the decision in the German Federal Court of Justice.
