Customers who sign up to the plan get a 10 percent discount on their electricity bill loaded onto their Continente supermarket loyalty card, with the underlying electricity tariff being the same as the simple tariff in the EDP Serviço Universal, the default supplier in Portugal’s partially liberalised energy market.
In a statement, the AdC stressed that its adoption of a formal statement of objections to these marketing arrangements does not determine the final result of the investigation and recalled that, in this phase of the proceedings, the companies in question have a right to lay out their defence.
The alleged illegality by the companies is in respect of the existence of a reciprocal non-competition pact for mainland Portugal in the sectors of the supply of electricity and natural gas and the distribution of foodstuffs, for a period of two years.
“In the light of the Competition Law this may represent, under certain conditions, an illicit act of market sharing”, the AdC note states.
This law bans agreements between companies aimed at restricting competition in the national market that, by their very nature, have a potential negative impact, reducing consumers’ welfare and undermining the competitiveness of the companies and the economy as a whole.