The Loste group fined €900,000 for obstructing the Autorité’s dawn raids

Hindering of dawn raids

On 16 November 2023, the Autorité conducted dawn raids at the Paris premises of the Loste group and the French Federation of Charcuterie Meat Producers, Delicatessens and Meat Processors (Fédération française des industriels charcutiers, traiteurs, transformateurs de viandes – FICT), as part of an investigation launched in 2021 into the salted charcuterie sector.

During the dawn raids, the Autorité’s case officers found that:

• the Legal Director of CA Conseils et Services, designated as the occupant of the Loste group’s premises, provided information that she knew to be inaccurate to the Autorité’s case officers on site, indicating that the head of the Loste group was not present, even though she had previously seen him and informed him that the Autorité’s case officers were on the premises;
• similarly, the head of the Loste group, who is also Vice-President of the FICT, provided information that he knew to be inaccurate to the Autorité’s case officers present at the FICT’s premises, when he said that he was away on business in the UK, whereas he was, at the time, at the Loste group’s premises in Paris.

Serious conduct

The above-described conduct, which could entail a real risk of evidence being lost or tampered with, and which could have compromised the efficiency of the Investigation Services’ work, took place during the preliminary phase of the dawn raids. The Autorité stresses the particular importance of the preliminary phase of the investigation, as it determines the success of the dawn raids and the rest of the investigation as a whole. It therefore requires the full cooperation of the company subject to the dawn raids.

The provisions on obstruction are crucial in ensuring the effectiveness of the Autorité’s investigative and fact-finding powers. Companies under investigation must therefore refrain from providing incomplete or inaccurate information, in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 2 of section V of Article L. 464-2 of the French Commercial Code (Code de commerce).

The Loste group fined €900,000

In view of the above, the Autorité has imposed a fine of €900,000 jointly and severally on Loste and CA Conseils et Services, as the perpetrator companies, and on CA Animation, as the parent company.

In determining the amount of the fine, the Autorité took into account the seriousness of the offence of obstruction, which hinders its work to curb anticompetitive practices. It also considered all the circumstances of the case, in particular the fact that the obstruction was the result of conduct by the head of the Group and its long-serving Legal Director.