October 23, 2022
Indictments Issued in Price Fixing Probe
French authorities order Rexel, Legrand and Schneider Electric to secure tens of millions of Euros in ongoing electrical distribution investigation
As reported by Reuters at the time, the offices of four of France’s largest electrical goods companies were raided by police in 2018 on suspicion of cartel pricing and corruption. The companies were suspected of jointly agreeing to raise prices by limiting competition. Twelve searches were carried out at Legrand, Rexel, Sonepar and Schneider Electric as part of an investigation that was opened earlier in the year.
Last week, the lengthy, ongoing investigations resulted in three of the publicly-traded, multi-billion Euro companies announcing indictments and further investigation for allegedly implementing price agreement mechanisms in violation of French competition rules.
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Rexel is required to set aside a bank guarantee of €20 million and a cash guarantee of €48 million to be paid by January 15, 2023.
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Schneider Electric is required to provide a bank guarantee of €20 million and a cash guarantee of €80 million to be paid by January 15, 2023.
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Legrand has been indicted and ordered to provide security in the amount of €80.5 million.
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Sonepar is a privately held company that isn’t required to publicly disclose matters related to government indictments. Due to non-English legal filings, we – and our accompanying lack of multilingual education – are unable to definitively determine if Sonepar is still involved in the French authorities' investigation.
Each indictment is an indication that the French Investigating Judge and the French Competition Authority believe that crime(s) have been committed, but it is not a declaration of guilt. All three companies have issued statements that demonstrate strong disagreement with all the allegations made by the authorities and their intentions to defend their positions vigorously.
Below are statements issued in recent days by Rexel, Schneider Electric and Legrand:
