FEDERAL ANTIMONOPOLY SERVICE ACCUSED LINDT OF THE LOW QUALITY OF CHOCOLATE

The antitrust authority has accused Lind Chocolate Company of the violation of the competition law. According to the Federal Antimonopoly Service, Lindt und Sprungli (Russia) carried out the marketing activities by means of using inaccurate data.

First of all, we are talking about advertising of chocolate and the discrepancy between the quality of products and the information reported on the packaging.

According to the FAS, the company shouldn’t have placed a premium on the Swiss traditions of the production of goods, as well as refer to the guarantees of quality and high brand reputation. However, according to the experts of the antitrust authority, the impression formed by the consumer, as a result, turns out to be built on deception.

The products of Lindt on the Russian market turned out to be qualitatively different from those that can be seen on store shelves in Switzerland, France and Germany.

As the deputy head of the FAS Andrey Kashevarov noted, labeling goods with the categories "standard", "quality" and "traditions" is legal only if the actual characteristics of the product correspond to this. Otherwise, the manufacturing company receives benefits that do not have rational justification, which has a negative impact on the state of competition, redistributing demand on the market.

The representatives of the company itself deny the fact of cheating customers, insisting that there is no difference between Swiss chocolate and what is sold in Russia. The press service reported that all the information necessary to support this position has already been sent to the FAS, and the company itself is open to dialogue with the authorities. However, why such a dialogue did not take place six months before is not clear.

The fact is that the decision to initiate the case was made by the FAS employees far from spontaneously.

At the end of 2019, Lindt und Sprungli (Russia) became one of the companies that received warnings from the FAS that they were violating the competition law.

The company had more than 7 months to settle the situation on the Russian market. However, the company apparently ignored the warnings of the authorities and did not provide information to the FAS until 31 July.

It is worth noting that the Swiss company is not the only foreign company whose reputation turned out to be at risk. A similar case has already been initiated by the FAS employees against a subsidiary of the Procter & Gamble Transnational Corporation in the Russian Federation. It was caught making a difference in the quality of the Ariel brand washing capsules. Whether the companies will be able to prove the absence of double standards in the attitude towards consumers in Russia and in Western Europe, will become clear in the process of considering the case in court.