A group of U.K. retailers is accusing Norway’s largest salmon producers of price-fixing, which has cost them, by their estimates, GBP 675 million (USD 865 million, EUR 790 million) in damages.
Asda, Iceland Foods, Marks and Spencer, Ocado, Morrison Supermarkets, Aldi, and Co-op filed a complaint on 7 February 2024 with the U.K. Competition Appeal Tribunal, an executive public body that assesses claims of damages under the U.K. Competition Act. They allege Norwegian salmon producers Bremnes Seashore, Cermaq, Grieg Seafood, Lerøy Seafood, SalMar, Mowi, and Scottish Sea Farms Limited – a SalMar-Lerøy joint venture – engaged in the practice.
“It is alleged that the defendants entered into and/or implemented unlawful cartel arrangements relating to the exchange of commercially sensitive information regarding prices and other price-setting factors which artificially inflated the sale prices for farmed Atlantic salmon,” the group said in its complaint.
The filing follows the European Commission’s 25 January announcement it is advancing a years-long price-fixing investigation into the same six Norwegian salmon producers. The investigation began in February 2019 and included raids of company facilities in several E.U. countries. If the companies are found to have colluded on pricing, each face a fine of up to 10 percent of the company’s annual worldwide turnover.
The U.K. retailers are following the path of U.S. retailers and consumers, which filed separate class-action lawsuits against the Norwegian producers in 2019. In October 2022, a USD 33 million (EUR 31 million) settlement agreement was reached between the indirect purchaser class of plaintiffs and the Norwegian salmon firms. That followed a USD 85 million (EUR 79.7 million) settlement with U.S. direct-purchaser plaintiffs in May 2022. During that time, the U.S. Department of Justice opened and then closed its own investigation into the issue.
The Norwegian producers are in the process of settling a separate price-fixing lawsuit filed in Canada in 2020 for CAD 5.25 million (USD 3.8 million, EUR 3.6 million).
According to the U.K. complaint, the price-fixing conspiracy began in 2011 and lasted until the first E.C. raids took place on 20 February 2019.
The complaint alleges illegal behavior included the exchange of commercially sensitive information and the manipulation of prices on the Norwegian spot market, which provided the international benchmark reference price for the pricing of farmed Atlantic salmon globally. The alleged price fixing impacted both fresh and frozen salmon and value-added products, including smoked salmon and ready-to-eat products, according to the complaint.
The U.K. supermarket chains that filed the complaint, which together make up 44 percent of the U.K. grocery market, estimated they sold around GBP 1.7 billion (USD 2.2 billion, EUR 2 billion) worth of farmed Norwegian salmon during the period in question. Their estimated damages stem from the extra money they spent on salmon priced at above-market rates and interest on those funds. They have also asked for the authority to award “such further and other relief as the Tribunal considers appropriate.”
“Due to the claimants’ long-term contractual arrangements with suppliers and the long production cycles in Atlantic salmon farming, the effects of the cartel are likely to have extended for a considerable time beyond the end of the cartel period,” they said. “The exact duration of the run-off effects will be a matter for evidence at trial, but provisionally, it is assumed to have lasted (at least) from the end of the cartel period until December 2020 but may have extended considerably longer.”
In its 2023 annual report, issued 28 February, Lerøy Seafood said it “strongly rejects the claimants' allegations and considers such claims from customers to be baseless.”
“In Europe, these types of claims are first and foremost relevant if the [European] Commission adopts a decision in its ongoing investigation and the decision is upheld,” it said. “The group understands that the claims have been issued at this stage in an attempt to interrupt potential limitation of claims under certain laws.”
