Almost 415 M€ in fines against the four historical meal vouchers issuers for anticompetitive practices

The Autorité de la concurrence fines for a total of nearly 415 M€ the four historical meal vouchers issuers : Edenred France, Up, Natixis Intertitres and Sodexo Pass France along with the Centrale de Règlement des Titres (CRT), which ensures, on their behalf, the processing and reimbursement of meal vouchers with their customers, considering that these players have disregarded competition law by implementing anticompetitive practices.

Two types of practices were implemented:

• between 2010 and 2015, Edenred France, Up, Natixis Intertitres and Sodexo Pass France exchanged confidential commercial information every month, through the CRT, regarding their respective market shares, which made it possible to restrict competition between them;
• between 2002 and 2018, Edenred France, Up, Natixis Intertitres and Sodexo Pass France adopted a series of agreements intended to lock the market for meal vouchers by controlling the entry of new players and by reciprocally banning the launch of dematerialised vouchers issuing (in the form of a card or mobile application). These practices have harmed competition and slowed down the development in France of technological innovation, with dematerialised meal vouchers.