The Hellenic Competition Commission (HCC) unanimously decided, at its plenary meeting on 02/07/2022, according to para. 35 of its Decision no 704/2020, to accept the settlement proposals submitted by the companies: 1) GRAFFITI IMPORT AND TRADING OF SCHOOL SUPPLIES AND GIFTWARE S.A, 2) POLO S.A. and 3) GIOVAS S.A. – COMMERCIAL, TECHNICAL & TOURISM S.A, following the relevant Settlement Submissions by the above parties, under para. 37 of HCC Decision no. 704/2020. 

The ex officio investigation was triggered by random checks conducted by the Directorate-General for Competition ("DGC") on www.skroutz.gr and Bestprice.gr price comparison platforms, regarding the online stores’ prices on the most popular brands of school bags and pencil cases. The DGC's investigation in the above online platforms revealed that a number of online stores sell several models of school bags at the same or similar prices. For the purposes of the investigation, the DGC conducted, as part of its competences, unannounced inspections (dawn raids) at the premises of undertakings operating at all levels of the sector concerned.

The relevant market of products or services in this case includes all products or services which are regarded as interchangeable or substitutable by the consumer, by reason of the products’ characteristics, their prices and their intended use. For the purposes of this case, the companies concerned are active in the markets for import/manufacturing, wholesale and retail of school bags, kids’ lunch bags and pencil cases, while POLO is also active in the import/manufacturing, wholesale and retail of waist bags (hereinafter referred to as "school supplies"). The concept of a school bag may include any product that used for carrying books and paper materials in general.

The relevant geographic market covers the area in which the undertakings concerned sell the relevant products under sufficiently homogeneous conditions of competition. In this case, the relevant geographical area can, in principle, be defined as the whole of the Greek territory, as the companies involved are active or may be active throughout the territory.

The parties involved in the case, for which evidence capable of establishing a violation of art. 1 of Law 3959/2011 and 101 of the TFEU in the context of independent vertical agreements between each of the three companies and resellers/retailers, expressed in writing their interest in examining the possibility of their placement under the SP and submitted a relevant request, in accordance with para. 16 of HCC Decision no. 704/2020. Following these requests, the HCC, at its meeting held on 11.07.2022, unanimously decided on the pertinence of the case as to place each of the parties involved under the Settlement Procedure, considering that the relevant criteria are met. To this end, in the context of exercising its discretionary power in placing cases under the SP, the HCC took into account, in particular, the genuine willingness of the parties to settle, the number of applicants for settlement^[1], the nature of the infringement as a vertical agreement and the expected degree of procedural efficiency, which was deemed considerably high in this case.

The Commissioner-Rapporteur then invited the parties concerned to bilateral meetings and, after reaching a sufficient degree of consensus on the facts, their legal classification, the gravity and duration of the infringements, the standard of proof of the objections in the light of the evidence and the calculation of the range fineσ, the parties responded to the Rapporteur’s invitation settle and made written settlement submissions in accordance with para. 27 of HCC Decision no. 704/2020. By their submissions, filed in the period from September 23 and 29, 2022, pursuant to par. 37 of HCC Decision no. 704/2020, the parties irrevocably, unconditionally and explicitly confirm that the above Statement of Objections of the Commissioner-Rapporteur represents and reflects the submitted Settlement Proposals and, therefore, their commitment to the settlement procedure is valid.

In this case, the undertakings concerned and their distributors are active at a different level in the marketing chain for school bags, kid’s lunch bags, pencil cases and waist bags, so that their agreements/practices constitute vertical agreements falling within the scope of articles 1 par. 1 Law 3959/2011 and 101 par. 1 TFEU, insofar as they include vertical restraints of competition. In particular, the undertakings engaged in resale price maintenance ("RPM") practices, which the cooperating retailers largely complied with. Therefore, the examined practices fall within the concept of an "agreement" and, in particular, within the concept of a vertical agreement between undertakings operating at a different level in the distribution chain and fall within the scope of articles 1(1) of Law 3959/2011 and 101(1) TFEU. The above practices can have an appreciable effect on intra-Community trade, within the meaning of EU competition rules and, therefore, Article 101 TFEU is applicable in parallel in the present case. At the same time, the conditions are met (in particular, identical subject-matter, products, participating parties, geographical area and methods applied) for the characterisation of the examined practices as a single and continuous infringement, while no individual exemption shall be understood under articles 1(3) of Law 3959/ 2011 and 101(3) TFEU, according to the reasoning of the Statement of Objections.

The Grand Chamber of the HCC, by virtue of para. 35 of its Decision no. 704/2020, accepts the aforementioned Settlement Proposals submitted by the above undertakings, according to the reasoning of the Statement of Objections, and decides as follows:

Finds that the parties involved infringed Article 1 of Law 3959/2011 and 101 TFEU due to their participation in prohibited vertical agreements through the practices outlined in the Statement of Objections, in the context of the Settlement Procedure. The participation for each of the parties involved in the prohibited vertical agreements is as follows:

GRAFFITI IMPORT AND TRADING OF SCHOOL SUPPLIES AND GIFTWARE S.A.: the duration of the infringement extends from 12.07.2018 to 28.08.2020

POLO S.A: the duration of the infringement extends from 24.05.2017 to 06.09.2021

GIOVAS S.A. – COMMERCIAL, TECHNICAL & TOURISM S.A.: the duration of the infringement extends from 11.06.2016 to 12.08.2021

Imposes the following fines per company for committing the infringements of Articles 1 of Law 3959/2011 and 101 TFEU, found in the Statement of Objections:

GRAFFITI IMPORT AND TRADING OF SCHOOL SUPPLIES AND GIFTWARE S.A.: the total fine amounts to 36,864 euros

POLO S.A:  the total fine amounts to 254,246 euros

GIOVAS S.A. – COMMERCIAL, TECHNICAL & TOURISM S.A.:  the total fine amounts to 162,463 euros

Orders the parties involved in the above infringements to cease, if they have not already done so, and refrain in the future from the infringements of Articles 1 of Law 3959/2011 and 101 TFEU found in the Statement of Objections.

The total amount of the fines imposed on the four (4) settling parties is 453,573 euros.

^[1] All the parties in this case are placed under the Settlement Procedure.