The Belgian-based purchasing organization has been accused of signing agreements with French suppliers too late, violating the strict timeline governing annual price negotiations.
Eurelec, the European purchasing center for French retailer E. Leclerc, has been fined more than 33 million euros for failing to meet last year’s deadline for finalizing commercial negotiations with certain French suppliers, the French authorities announced Monday.
“A fine of 33,537,615 euros has been issued” to “Eurelec Trading SCRL (LECLERC) for 70 failures to comply with its obligation to sign agreements with its French suppliers by March 1, 2025,” the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Repression (DGCCRF) stated in a press release.
Eurelec, an international hub based in Brussels that also includes German giant Rewe and the Belgian-Dutch supermarket chain Ahold Delhaize, previously received a record fine of 38 million euros in 2024 for similar reasons, four years after a prior penalty of 6.34 million euros. “As long as the commercial negotiation concerns products intended for sale in France, and regardless of the law governing the contract, the agreements are subject to the provisions” stipulated in the commercial code, the DGCCRF reminded.
“Political Rhetoric”
Each year, from December 1st to March 1st, supermarkets and suppliers engage in negotiations, often contentious, that ultimately determine retail prices for products (excluding private-label brands). European purchasing centers are regularly accused of circumventing French legislation. Retailers defend them as a means of competing with multinational corporations, as Michel-Édouard Leclerc, chairman of the strategic committee of E.Leclerc centers, France’s leading retailer, reiterated on Public Sénat Monday, prior to the sanction announcement.
When questioned about whether Eurelec allowed it to bypass French Egalim laws, which aim to protect farmers’ income, Michel-Édouard Leclerc dismissed it as “political rhetoric.” “Do I have any legal disputes that would suggest we have not complied with agricultural raw materials? Not to my knowledge,” he responded, adding that his group negotiates with “large multinationals,” such as Nestlé and Unilever, which, in his view, do not represent “the interests of French farmers.”
