Flint Group Polska, one of the largest entities in Poland offering printing inks and accessories, entered into a prohibited agreement with distributors of its products. The President of UOKiK fined undertakings with nearly PLN 700 000 (ca. EUR 175 000)

Pursuant to the antimonopoly law, agreements which have as their object or effect elimination or restriction of competition are forbidden. Market division is one of prohibited practices. Instead of competing, entities divide a territory, goods or groups of customers. For example, the market division by an entity-based criterion involves distributors agreeing which customers they are not going to compete for. Other entities and consumers lose out on such practice as they cannot choose product suppliers or service providers. A maximum financial sanction for the participation in a prohibited agreement amounts to 10% of the undertaking's revenue.

The antimonopoly proceedings regarding the collusion on the market of printing inks were instituted by the Office in December 2012. A notification to the effect that the prohibited agreement involving dividing the market was filed by one of the parties to the collusion, Primar seated in Kraków. The Office analyzed documents and information obtained, among other things, in the course of inspections performed at the entities' premises. In the course of the proceedings conducted by UOKiK it was found that Flint Group Polska and four entities engaged in the distribution of its products had concluded the unlawful agreement pertaining to inks sold to printing houses. The undertakings agreed that they were not going to sell printing inks to customers being the customers of the other parties to the collusion. They resigned from competing for their contractors.  As a result the market was divided and there was no price competition among the distributors of Flint printing inks in Poland. The scheme lasted for a few years thanks to exchanging information by, inter alia, electronic mail and at meetings.

Flint Group Polska was fined PLN 449 402 (ca. EUR 112 350) for being a party to the prohibited agreement. Sanctions imposed on the remaining collusion partners totalled: Scorpio in Łódź – PLN 216,412 (ca. EUR 54 103), Primar in Kraków – PLN 19,432 (ca. EUR 4 858), Serwis Print in Łódź – PLN 5,381 (ca. EUR 1 345) and GFG Lastadia in Gdynia – PLN 2,391. The President of UOKiK decreased the fine imposed on Primar which notified the Office about the collusion. The Office also took into account the fact that all parties involved discontinued the contested practices.

Additional information for the media:
Małgorzata Cieloch, Spokesperson for UOKiK
Department of International Relations and Communication
Pl. Powstańców Warszawy 1, 00-950 Warszawa
Phone: +48 22 827 28 92, 55 60 314
Fax +48 22 826 11 86
E-mail: [SCODE]bWFsZ29yemF0YS5jaWVsb2NoQHVva2lrLmdvdi5wbA==[ECODE]