The Competition Authority raided Unilever's offices on suspicion of price coordination

Competition Authority investigators raided Unilever's offices, confiscated documents and computers and questioned officials, as part of an investigation into suspicions of price coordination.

Unilever: "Act lawfully and cooperate with the investigation as required"

Walla!

Of money

08/02/2022

Tuesday, 08 February 2022, 23:13 Updated: 23:20

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Price coordination: Who is the importer investigated by the Competition Authority?

Competition Authority investigators raided Unilever's offices, confiscated documents and computers and detained its senior investigators, as part of suspicions of price coordination.

Unilever: "Acting legally and cooperating with the investigation as required"

Competition Authority investigators raided Unilever's offices, as part of the investigation for fear of price coordination in the economy.

Investigators confiscated documents and computers, questioned a number of seniors at the sword and even detained some of them for questioning.

According to assumptions in the food industry, the unusual action taken today by Competition Authority investigators is a complement to the overt investigation opened about three months ago during which some of the food producers, leading importers and owners of retail chains were investigated.

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Prominent Unilever brands (Photo: PR)

It should be noted that this is the first significant action of the Competition Authority under the new director, Michal Cohen, although she also led the previous stage in it, when she was still acting in place of Michal Halperin, the former director of the authority.

In the previous phase of the investigation, the investigators raided the offices of Shufersal and Strauss and summoned senior officials in the food industry Carmi Levy, Itzik Aberkhan (who has since retired as Shufersal CEO, although according to him and the company, regardless of the investigation), Eyal Ravid from Victory, Eitan Yohananoff, Noam Yohananoff

Witzan

from the importer Diplomat and other leading players in the food market.During the

previous moves taken in the investigation, Cohen was careful not to elaborate on it, saying that any leaked details could disrupt the investigation, but noted that this began long before the cost of living rose to the headlines.

The competition has received considerable criticism in the State Comptroller's report, which claims that it is not doing enough to protect consumers from monopolies in the food industry.

It is currently unknown whether the investigation has matured into an indictment against any of those involved.

Unilever chose to respond laconic to the raid on its offices and the company stated that it is acting solely in accordance with the law and will cooperate with the investigation as required.

Michal Cohen, Director of the Competition Authority.

Began the investigation while Michal Halperin was still acting (Photo: Competition Authority website)

Some of the best-known and best-selling food brands in Israel

The brands that Unilever manufactures and markets in Israel (Unilever Israel is a branch of the global Unilever corporation) include: Thelma, Strauss Ice Cream, Bagel Bagel, Lipton, Vered Hagalil, Helman's, 778. The company also imports and markets care brands and silver cleaning products. Exeff in Din Pampering, Dove and more.

Unilever Global recently experienced a 30% drop in its share price, partly due to the decision to demand that Ben & Jerry's in Israel stop selling guilds from its products beyond the Green Line.

In response, Avi Singer, CEO of Ben & Jerry's in Israel, demanded action against Unilever-Israel, subject to the boycott laws that are being formulated between the Ministries of Finance and Justice, but this issue has of course nothing to do with the step taken by the Competition Authority.

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