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On December 11, the National Economic Prosecutor’s Office (FNE) and Nestlé Chile presented an extrajudicial agreement before the Tribunal for the Defense of Free Competition (TDLC), signed in the framework of an investigation aimed at verifying compliance by this company with the ordered by this court.
This resolution, together with confirming the validity of the transparency and publicity measures established in a judgment of the same court, ordered Nestlé and other processors to exclude, both from their pricing guidelines and from the contracts entered into with their suppliers, any type of clause that results or may result, de facto, in an exclusive deal or that hinders the mobility of said suppliers.
In particular, companies should not establish bonds that retroactively reward annual volume growth or volume growth in winter, or grant better payment terms for duration or permanence as a supplier to the respective processor.
The TDLC also ordered to include in the contracts the possibility that producers can terminate them unilaterally, giving reasonable notice, without subsequent liability.
In the investigation carried out by the Antitrust Division of the FNE to oversee compliance with Resolution No. 57/2019, it was found that Nestlé has made modifications to the commercial conditions established in its price and contract guidelines, in order to comply with as dictated by the TDLC.
However, some matters that should be corrected were also identified, to which refer the commitments adopted by the company in the framework of the extrajudicial agreement signed with the Prosecutor’s Office.
In this way, Nestlé undertook to adapt its price and contract guidelines, to maintain strict adherence to what is imposed by Resolution No. 57/2019, eliminating those bonuses whose structure could constitute or tend to reduce the mobility of suppliers, in addition to adapt the unilateral termination terms of the contracts without subsequent liability for the producers, among other commitments.
Third out-of-court settlement of 2020
This is the third out-of-court agreement presented this year by the FNE to the TDLC related to the milk market. Before they were those subscribed with Soprole and its subsidiary Prolesur, in May; and with Watt’s, last October, within the framework of permanent monitoring of the conditions of competition in this market and the supervision of compliance with the decisions of the TDLC.
Article 39 letter ñ) of DL 211 allows the FNE to sign extrajudicial agreements with the companies that are investigated, provided that such agreements protect free competition in the markets.
Out-of-court settlements must be approved by the TDLC, for which a hearing was set for Thursday, January 7 at 9:30 a.m.
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