In October 2023, the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority (Konkurrence- og Forbrugerstyrelsen) decided to adopt a decision that another commercial undertaking – this time a consultancy firm, Ecit Account A/S – had participated in the establishment and functioning of the cartel.
The novelty of this decision of the Authority is that it was not actually a night club operator, but rather, was still part of the cartel by contributing to it. The Authority stated that the company had a leading role on the board of directors of the jointly owned purchasing company, had drafted the market sharing agreement, and stressed the need for the agreement actively participating in meetings where the market sharing agreement was discussed.
This comes on the back of the first issuance of fines in the ‘night club cartel’ cases issued in 2021, in which night club market sharing cartel between 22 night clubs and their jointly owned purchasing company. The 22 companies accepted to pay fines for their participation in the infringement. Some of the names of the participating night clubs included ‘Crazy Daisy’ and ‘Skum’.
The essence of the night club cartel (diskotekskartel) was that the participants may not open branches in each other’s cities/municipalities or within a distance of 20 km from each other, and that some of the actors were engaged in such cartel practices for nearly 15 years.
The decision of the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority (Konkurrence- og Forbrugerstyrelsen) against Ecit Account A/S can be read here.