Carrefour contests a fine of 10.3 million euros imposed on its purchasing center

The Eureca purchasing center was sanctioned by the fraud prevention department for non-compliance with the deadline for concluding contracts with agro-industrial suppliers.

Eureca, Carrefour's international purchasing center, received an administrative fine of 10.3 million euros for failure to respect the date before which contracts with the distributor's agro-industrial suppliers must be concluded, announced Friday, November 22, the fraud repression department. The mass distribution brand immediately denounced a “form of bureaucratic absurdity” and announced that she would contest the fine “on all possible legal grounds”.

The fine targeting Eureca, based in Spain, was decided “for 12 breaches of its obligation to sign agreements concluded with its suppliers no later than January 15 and 31, 2024”explains the fraud prevention department. Each year, negotiations take place between large retailers and their agro-industrial suppliers in France to determine the conditions of sale for some of the products sold in supermarkets.

Traditionally tense, they take place between the end of the calendar year and March 1, except in exceptional cases such as in 2024. The French government then brought forward the date for the conclusion of the negotiations to the end of January, hoping to bring product prices back down to the supermarkets. In August, the purchasing center of the distributor E. Leclerc, Eurelec, was also fined 38 million euros for having exceeded the deadline for signing contracts.