On 6 October 2020, the European Commission disclosed that it had sent a Statement of Objections to Conserve Italia Soc. Coop. Agricola and its subsidiary Conserves France SA for participation in the canned vegetables cartel. In its Statement of Objections, the Commission informed the companies of its preliminary view that they have breached EU antitrust rules by colluding to distort competition through horizontal price fixing, market sharing and allocating customers for the supply of certain types of canned vegetables within the European Economic Area. ^[1]Antitrust: Commission sends Statement of Objections to Conserve Italia for participation in canned vegetables cartel, 5 October 2020.

This is the next chapter in the Commission’s investigation into the canned food market, which has already resulted in a settlement decision against three other manufacturers, Bonduelle, Coroos and Group CECAB, which admitted their involvement in the cartel and received a total fine of € 31.6 million. On 16 December 2020, the Commission published a non-confidential version of this decision. ^[2]Decision of the European Commission of 27 September 2019, Case AT.40127 – Canned Vegetables.