- Legal action brought on behalf of millions of UK consumers
accuses the salmon companies Mowi, Mowi Holdings, SalMar, Lerøy,
Scottish Sea Farms and Grieg of forming an association (or
“cartel”) to artificially inflate the price of farmed Atlantic
salmon
- Defendants unlawfully colluded to increase global prices for
farmed Atlantic salmon, leading to increases in the prices paid by
consumers, according to the claim
- The alleged cartel’s behaviour drove farmed Atlantic salmon
prices up to 20% higher than they otherwise would have been, much
of which was passed on to consumers, the legal claim says
- According to the claim, the salmon companies participated in
co-ordinated transactions and unlawfully exchanged information to
drive farmed Atlantic salmon prices up
- The claim, filed at the specialist UK Competition Appeal
Tribunal, seeks redress of as much as £382 million in compensation
for consumers who bought certain farmed Atlantic salmon products
from UK grocery retailers between October 2015 and May
2019
- This action has been issued to seek compensation for
consumers, following a separate claim filed recently by seven of
the largest supermarkets in the UK against big salmon
producers
- The new UK legal action piles additional pressure on major
farmed Atlantic salmon producers who have also been accused of
price-fixing by the European Commission and have settled class
action lawsuits involving similar allegations in the US and
Canada
Alleged collusion and unlawful price-fixing between six of the
world’s top salmon producers are detailed in a new collective
action proceeding filed yesterday in the UK Competition Appeal
Tribunal, which demands compensation for millions of consumers.
The collective action seeks as much as £382 million for UK
consumers who overpaid for at least four years because of alleged
breaches of competition law by the proposed defendants: Mowi and
its subsidiary Mowi Holdings, SalMar, Lerøy, Scottish Sea Farms and
Grieg. The defendants are all prominently involved in the global
farmed Atlantic salmon market, and are major suppliers of farmed
Atlantic salmon to UK supermarkets, grocery stores and food
manufacturers.
The six defendants worked together to increase the price of
farmed Atlantic salmon through various methods, according to the
claim. The defendants are accused of manipulating benchmark prices
for Norwegian Atlantic salmon by using related entities to purchase
salmon at inflated prices, and unlawfully exchanging commercially
sensitive information about the price and volumes of sales of
farmed Atlantic salmon. Senior executives at rival companies
allegedly planned to rig prices via email correspondence, and at
various meetings and “working dinners”. It is claimed that this was
cartel behaviour and a breach of competition laws, which are
designed to protect consumers.
According to the claim, this unlawful overcharging of consumers
continued until 31 May 2019, shortly after the European Commission
raided the offices of various Atlantic salmon farmers as part of a
major investigation into price-fixing in February 2019. In January
2024, the Commission expressed its preliminary view that various
Norwegian companies, including Mowi, SalMar, Lerøy and Grieg,
colluded to fix short-term farmed Atlantic salmon prices in Europe
between 2011 and 2019.
Some of the defendants have also already contributed to
multimillion-dollar payments to settle class-action lawsuits bought
on behalf of salmon consumers and other buyers in the US and in
Canada.
The new legal action claims that the alleged cartel’s behaviour
drove farmed Atlantic salmon prices up to 20% higher than they
otherwise would have been over the course of the alleged
conspiracy. The defendants charged higher prices to supermarkets
and other retailers in the first instance; then the retailers
passed on the majority of the price increases to consumers. The
legal claim seek fair compensation on behalf of up to 44 million UK
consumers.
The legal action has been filed on behalf of UK consumers by
Waterside Class Limited, a company set up to bring this claim.
Waterside’s sole director and representative is Anne Heal, a former
Director of Regulatory Affairs at BT and Managing Director of
Strategy at Openreach. Waterside has instructed law firm Simmons
& Simmons and barristers Sarah Abram KC, Matthew Kennedy (both
of Brick Court Chambers) and Camilla Cockerill (of 4 New Square
Chambers) to represent it.
To find out more about the claim, and register for updates,
please visit www.salmonclaim.co.uk.
Summary of the legal action against Mowi, SalMar, Lerøy,
Scottish Sea Farms and Grieg
The claim has been filed in the Competition Appeal Tribunal, a
specialist UK judicial body. It alleges that the six defendants
have breached competition law by forming a cartel and colluding to
fix the price of farmed Atlantic salmon, using the NASDAQ Salmon
Index, the global benchmark for salmon retail prices.
Mowi ASA, formerly known as Marine Harvest ASA and listed on the
Oslo Stock Exchange, is the largest farmed Atlantic salmon producer
globally, being responsible for 21% of the total Norwegian Atlantic
salmon production on average between 2015 to 2019 and 35% of total
Scottish production during the same period. Mowi, Greig, Cermaq and
SalMar are five of the largest Norwegian farmed Atlantic salmon
producers, and Mowi and Scottish Sea Farms are the two largest
farmed Scottish Atlantic salmon producers.
It is alleged that the defendants worked together by creating
artificial supply and purchase orders to drive up prices on the
NASDAQ Salmon Index, regardless of actual levels of demand or
production. The NASDAQ Salmon Index governs global farmed Atlantic
salmon spot prices, which meant that most other farmed Atlantic
salmon suppliers also sold their products at higher prices, even
though they played no part in the alleged conspiracy. As a result,
the claim asserts that grocery retailers in the UK were forced to
overpay and passed a large part of these additional costs on to
their customers.
The claim has been brought on behalf of UK consumers. It is
alleged that consumers, not retailers, bore the majority of the
expense of artificial price rises – based on evidence of actual
retail price changes, and the demonstrable pricing power held by
retailers to pass higher farmed Atlantic salmon prices on to their
customers.
According to the claim, Mowi, SalMar, Lerøy, Scottish Sea Farms
and Grieg have breached the prohibition on cartel activity imposed
by section 2 of the UK Competition Act 1998, as well as Article 101
of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and Article
53 of the European Economic Area Agreement. The European provisions
are relevant because they were in force in the UK at the time of
the alleged collusion, including as part of the agreed post-Brexit
transitional arrangements between the EU and the UK.
This legal action is entirely separate from another claim
brought in the Competition Appeal Tribunal in March 2024 against a
similar group of defendants by a number of supermarkets in the UK.
It differs from that claim because it identifies consumers, rather
than retailers, as the principal victims of the cartel. Waterside,
representing the consumer claimants, will argue that retailers
passed on the majority of higher salmon prices to their customers,
and therefore that much of the damage caused by alleged
price-fixing has ultimately been suffered by consumers rather than
retailers.
Further information for consumers
Any consumer who purchased farmed Atlantic
salmon products (sold for the purpose of personal
consumption) from a grocery retailer
in the UK between 1 October 2015 and 31 May 2019 is an eligible
member of the claimant class, as well as the personal or authorised
representative of any person who meets this description and would
be in the class but for their death.
Grocery retailers includes any
retail setting, whether bricks-and-mortar stores or online sales
channels, in the United Kingdom. This includes, for example,
supermarkets, online supermarkets, convenience stores, fishmongers,
and non-supermarket online outlets. It does not include catering or “foodservice” providers
such as restaurants, cafés, pubs or other eateries, meaning that
salmon consumed in restaurants is not covered as part of this legal
action.
Farmed Atlantic salmon products
means all products sold by grocery retailers containing 50% or more
farmed Atlantic salmon. This generally includes both fresh and
frozen whole salmons, fillets, sliced (including smoked) salmon,
steaks and other cuts or portions of salmon, and tinned salmon. It
generally excludes processed products
which incorporate salmon (such as fishcakes, fish pies, sandwiches
or ready meals), unless they contain 50% or more farmed Atlantic
salmon.
The proceeding has been brought on an opt-out basis, meaning
that all UK class members are included by default unless they
decide to opt out. If the legal action is successful, most class
members will not have to produce any documents to be compensated,
and compensation will be divided equally among them.
Class members, on whose behalf the collective proceeding has
been brought, will not pay any costs or fees to participate in this
legal action. The proceeding is being funded by Erso Capital, an
experienced litigation funder, and the action is insured. Class
members will not be at risk of paying any fees or the defendants’
costs if the proceedings are ultimately unsuccessful.
About the proposed class representative
The proposed class representative, Waterside, is a company
incorporated for the purpose of bringing this claim. Waterside’s
sole director and representative, Anne Heal, was previously the
Director of Regulatory Affairs at BT, where she led negotiations
with Ofcom to secure the creation of Openreach.
She is a passionate advocate for consumers. She currently holds,
or has held, a number of non-executive and lay roles which enable
her to do that, including at the Office of Rail and Road, the
General Dental Council and (previously) the Thames Water Customer
Challenge Group. She also chairs the charity Volunteering
Matters.
She has set up an Advisory Panel of experts to offer additional
guidance and support during the proceedings. These experts are:
- Kate Wellington, former Lead Lawyer for Policy &
Communications at the consumer champion group Which?
- Helen Charlton, the current Chair of the Financial Services
Consumer Panel
- Nicholas Spearing, an expert in competition law with more than
40 years of experience, and a former partner at law firm
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP.
Statements
Anne Heal, on behalf of Waterside, the proposed class
representative in the action, said:
“This action claims that some of the Atlantic salmon farming
industry’s biggest companies have conspired to raid the wallets of
hard-working shoppers. This action aims to seek fair redress for
the millions of British consumers who we say spent years overpaying
for one of the UK’s favourite and highly nutritious foods.
“By bringing this collective action, I want to give a voice to
affected consumers across the UK, and see them properly compensated
for their losses. I also want to bring attention to market
practices which harm consumers, and hold the defendant companies to
account for their alleged wrongdoing.”
Patrick Boylan, Head of Simmons and Simmons’ UK Dispute
Resolution Group, who is leading the litigation, added:
“Competition laws are there to protect everyone. Thankfully, we
have a fast-evolving collective proceedings regime to help
vindicate consumers’ rights. We are looking forward to working with
Waterside and Anne Heal to bring this claim against Mowi, SalMar,
Lerøy, Scottish Sea Farms and Grieg in respect of their alleged
unlawful conduct.”
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240621437056/en/
Conal Walsh / Andreas Grueter / Joshua Wolff, Palatine
Communications salmonclaim@palatine-media.com