Suspicion of price coordination: Competition Authority investigators raided the offices of the Sano management

The Competition Authority is baring its teeth and today (Sunday) forced the management of the cleaning products company Snow to report to the stock exchange about an ongoing investigation against it. As part of the investigation, PA investigators today raided the company's management offices in Hod Hasharon. According to Snow's statement, the investigators conducted a search and collected materials suspected of violating the competition law and price coordination.

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One of the company's employees, who does not hold a senior position, was summoned for questioning. Even before the raid, the Competition Authority demanded various materials and correspondence relating to price coordination, but at that time this did not require reporting to the stock exchange and the affair remained under the radar. Yesterday, Basno refused to comment on the content of the investigation, but clarified that they currently have no additional information about the nature of the investigation and the circumstances of the raid.

The raid is part of a broad investigation that has been going on for a year against suppliers and retailers in the food and consumer market on suspicion of price fixing. As part of this, last week Doron Glazer , the CEO of the Yapaura beverage company, and other executives from among the food manufacturers were also questioned. The main suspicion was price coordination in violation of the competition law through messages conveyed in the media.

It seems that most of the managers of the leading retail chains who were summoned for investigation by the Authority provided its investigators with information about the price policies of the various suppliers and how to determine the price for the consumer. In this framework, the researchers reached companies such as Snow, Yafaura, Strauss, Unilever, Diplomat, Willipod and Stavitz.

Economy Minister Nir Barkat is trying to deal with the wave of price increases in the economy, partly through attempts to "sham" companies. One of the companies that was at the center of his recent attack was Wysotsky, which completely denied the claims of a discriminatory price policy in favor of the Palestinians and pointed out that the Minister of Economy is misleading consumers.

Barkat also raised a gear in regards to the conduct of the competition authority and made it clear that he intends to remove director Michal Cohen from her position. For that matter, he even turned to the Appointments Committee at the Civil Service Commission. The director of the Authority refuses to resign from her position at this stage.