ANTITRUST | The Italian Competition Authority fines three snack producers for a cartel in the private-label savory snack market

On 28 April 2026, the Italian Competition Authority (ICA or the Authority) imposed fines on three companies (together, the Companies) for participating in a restrictive agreement in breach of Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) in the Italian market for private-label savoury snacks supplied to large-scale retail chains. According to the ICA, the Companies engaged in a single, complex and continuous anti-competitive arrangement aimed at allocating supplies to large-scale retailers through the coordination of their respective commercial strategies.

The decision is also noteworthy from a procedural standpoint, as it marks the ICA’s first application of the settlement procedure under Article 14-quater of the Italian Antitrust Law (Law No. 287/1990). In addition to the reductions granted to two of the Companies involved under the leniency programme, all three Companies obtained a further reduction in their fines following the successful completion of the settlement procedure.

Newsletter n. 118 – May 2026