Final Report of the Hearing Officer – Case AT.40795 – Food Delivery Services
Date: 2025-05-26
Institutions: Directorate-General for Competition, European Commission
Subjects: EU competition policy, European Economic Area, cartel, control of restrictive practices, delivery, electronic commerce, foodstuff, market-sharing agreement, restriction on competition, sanction (EU)




C_202504692EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2025/4692


22.8.2025






Final Report of the Hearing Officer (1)

Case AT.40795 – Food Delivery Services
(Text with EEA relevance)
(C/2025/4692)

The draft decision is addressed to Delivery Hero SE (‘Delivery Hero’) and Glovoapp23 SA (‘Glovo’, collectively ‘the Parties’), two undertakings active in the sector for the services of delivery of food, grocery and other retail products to customers ordering it from an app or a website (2). The draft decision finds that the Parties engaged in a single and continuous infringement of Article 101 TFEU and Article 53 of the EEA Agreement.
The infringement consisted in arrangements between the Parties to exchange sensitive commercial information, allocate markets and not to poach each other’s employees. The infringement lasted from 17 July 2018 until 22 July 2022 (the date on which the merger between the Parties became effective) and covered the EEA.
On 23 July 2024, the Commission initiated proceedings pursuant to Article 11(6) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 (3) and Article 2(1) of Commission Regulation (EC) No 773/2004 (4) against the Parties.
After the Parties confirmed their willingness to engage in settlement discussions, settlement meetings took place between [...] (*1) and [...]. On […], the Parties submitted their formal request to settle pursuant to Article 10a(2) of Regulation No 773/2004 (the ‘Settlement Submission’).
On [...], the Commission adopted a statement of objections addressed to the Parties. On [...], the Parties replied to the statement of objections, confirming that it corresponded to the contents of their Settlement Submission and that they therefore remained committed to following the settlement procedure.
Pursuant to Article 16 of Decision 2011/695/EU, I have examined whether the draft decision deals only with objections in respect of which the Parties have been afforded the opportunity of making known their views. I conclude that it does so.
In view of the above, and taking into account that the Parties have not addressed any requests or complaints to me (5), I consider that the effective exercise of the procedural rights of the Parties to the proceedings in this case has been respected.


Brussels, 26 May 2025
               

Wouter WILS
               





(1)  Pursuant to Articles 16 and 17 of Decision 2011/695/EU of the President of the European Commission of 13 October 2011 on the function and terms of reference of the hearing officer in certain competition proceedings (OJ L 275, 20.10.2011, p. 29).

(2)  In July 2022, Delivery Hero acquired sole control over Glovo, which is now part of the Delivery Hero group.

(3)  Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 of 16 December 2002 on the implementation of the rules on competition laid down in Articles 81 and 82 of the Treaty (OJ L 1, 4.1.2003, p. 1) (‘Regulation (EC) No 1/2003).

(4)  Commission Regulation (EC) No 773/2004 of 7 April 2004 relating to the conduct of proceedings by the Commission pursuant to Articles 81 and 82 of the EC Treaty (OJ L 123, 27.4.2004, p. 18) (‘Regulation (EC) No 773/2004’).

(*1)  Parts of this text have been edited to ensure that confidential information is not disclosed. Those parts are replaced by a non-confidential summary in square brackets or are shown as [...].

(5)  Under Article 15(2) of Decision 2011/695/EU, parties to the proceedings in cartel cases which engage in settlement discussions pursuant to Article 10a of Regulation (EC) No 773/2004, may call upon the hearing officer at any stage during the settlement procedure in order to ensure the effective exercise of their procedural rights. See also paragraph 18 of Commission Notice 2008/C 167/01 on the conduct of settlement procedures in view of the adoption of Decisions pursuant to Article 7 and Article 23 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 in cartel cases (OJ C 167, 2.7.2008, p. 1).


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2025/4692/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)