The Antimonopoly Department invited the CEO and owner of the Victory retail chain, Eyal Ravid, as well as the heads of the Yohananof and Super-Bareket retail chains to a hearing before filing charges of cartel conspiracy, in which the above-mentioned retail chains agreed on price increases and price levels for goods in stores.
In addition, the Antimonopoly Department suspects that the Victory chain interfered with the pricing policies of its competitors, influencing suppliers, and sought to increase prices in competitors’ stores. Thus, we are talking about a violation of competition law and a violation of food law, the economic publication The Marker noted on Wednesday, June 19.
According to the Antimonopoly Office, in October 2021, the owner of the Victory chain, Eyal Ravid, agreed with the deputy general director of the Yohananof chain, Elad Kharazi, that both chains would refrain from holding promotions and sales as long as their market share remained unchanged. . In another case, he agreed with the management of the Super Bareket chain that retail chains would not increase the share of profits from the sale of disposable tableware after the introduction of the tax.
The Antimonopoly Department also claims that Ravid agreed with suppliers to increase prices for goods for their competitors: in particular, he conditioned the increase in prices for Doctor Fisher brand goods in the Victory chain by increasing prices for retail chains competing with Victory. In another case, he persuaded suppliers not to supply their products to the Rami Levy chain.