IN Brief:
- Italy’s competition authority has fined Amica Chips, Pata, and Preziosi Food more than €23m.
- The case concerns savoury snacks manufactured for large retailers and sold as private-label products.
- The decision puts renewed scrutiny on own-label tendering, commercial controls, and retailer supply agreements.
Italy’s Competition Authority has fined Amica Chips, Pata, and Preziosi Food a total of €23.29m after finding an anti-competitive agreement in the private-label savoury snacks market.
The authority imposed fines of €8.24m on Amica Chips, €7.56m on Pata, and €7.5m on Preziosi Food. The case centred on savoury snacks manufactured for large-scale retailers and sold through those retailers’ own distribution networks under private-label brands.
The authority found that the three companies took part in a single, complex, and continuous market-sharing cartel covering the supply of savoury snacks to large retailers. It concluded that the companies coordinated commercial strategies in private-label supply, restricting competition in breach of Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
Pata and Amica Chips received reductions in their fines under the authority’s leniency programme after providing evidence used to establish the infringement. The settlement procedure under Article 14-quater of Law 287/1990 also resulted in a further reduction in fines for all three companies.
Private-label savoury snacks occupy a large and often less visible part of the European snack manufacturing base. Retailers set product specifications, price architecture, promotional calendars, and range structures, while manufacturers compete for volume through tendering and long-term supply agreements.
Those contracts carry direct operational weight. Own-label snack production determines frying capacity, seasoning system utilisation, packaging runs, raw potato or corn procurement, oil purchasing, labour planning, and warehouse flow. A change in contract allocation can alter factory loading quickly, particularly where manufacturers rely on high-volume private-label ranges to stabilise throughput.
Competition compliance is therefore tied closely to manufacturing economics. Repeated tenders, comparable product specifications, concentrated supplier bases, and intense retailer price pressure can create conditions where commercial boundaries are tested. Authorities across Europe have increasingly focused on business-to-business coordination where consumer-facing price effects are indirect but supply-chain consequences are substantial.
The case lands during a period of strong private-label growth across European grocery. Inflation has pushed many shoppers towards retailer-owned ranges, while supermarkets have used own-label products to sharpen price positioning and defend margins. Snack manufacturers supplying those ranges have moved deeper into the strategic core of retail food operations.
The Italian decision will prompt renewed checks on tender governance, sales team conduct, commercial data handling, and communications with competitors. Procurement teams are also likely to revisit how supplier bids are structured and documented, particularly where a small number of manufacturers can meet scale, quality, and packaging requirements.
The fine does not only mark a legal breach. It exposes the pressure inside private-label manufacturing, where factories need stable volumes and retailers demand lower costs. As own-label ranges continue to expand, the commercial systems behind them will face closer scrutiny from regulators and customers alike.