Exclusivity clause: The French Competition Authority fines an undertaking €69 million for abuse of dominant position towards its competitors by practicing, during 9 years, a trade policy aiming at constraining its distributors to supply themselves exclusively from the company (Umicore)

*This article is an automatic translation of the original article, provided here for your convenience. Read the original article. On 23 June 2016, the Belgian Competition Authority imposed a heavy sanction on the Belgian zinc producer Umicore for having imposed exclusive purchasing obligations on its authorized distributors for nine years between 1999 and the end of 2007 prohibiting them from selling products competing with its products. The case was initiated by the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Employment. After transmission of the DGCCRF's administrative investigation report to the Authority, the latter took up the case on its own initiative in January 2011. The Authority's investigation services notified Umicore of four objections relating to two anti-competitive practices.