PRESS RELEASE

LARGE SCALE RETAIL TRADE: ANTITRUST AUTHORITY ACCEPTS COMMITMENTS, THE COMPANY CENTRALE ITALIANA DISSOLVED

During its meeting on 17 September 2014 the Antitrust Authority decided to accept, and to render binding, commitments undertaken by Centrale Italiana and 5 retail chains forming part of this central purchasing organization.  This marks the end, with the dissolution of the above mentioned Centrale Italiana, of the preliminary investigation that started on 04 December 2013, to check the effects of the understanding between the chains Coop, Despar, Il Gigante (through the subsidiary Gartico), Disco Verde and Sigma, that was developed with the main objective to centralize negotiations on conditions for the purchase of goods by participating enterprises to obtain cost savings on goods purchased.

Besides the termination of operations by Centrale Italiana, the commitment undertaken by the retail chains includes the interruption of any form of commercial collaboration between the 5 chains.  Two of them, Disco Verde and Sigma, in accordance with a mandate for trading granted to Coop Italia, will continue to negotiate a share of their purchases together with this marketing chain, limiting their joint negotiations solely with businesses with a turnover exceeding €2.0 million and that are not suppliers of branded products of the distributor; the agreement strictly excludes any other form of collaboration.

The Antitrust Authority is of the view that the commitments described above are appropriate and necessary to remove concerns regarding competition underpinning this preliminary investigation, in the sense that their implementation will bring about: i) an end to collaboration between the chains Coop, Il Gigante and Despar, whose presence on local markets of the large-scale retail trade has large areas of overlap, with a high risk of coordination in these markets; ii) the reduction of buyer power by the purchasing alliance that is limited to the operators Coop, Sigma and Disco Verde, whose share in supply markets does not exceed 20%.

Rome, 26 September 2014