The misuse of Skífan's dominant market position

The Competition Authority concluded that Skífan (now Dagur Group) had abused its dominant market position, thereby breaching the prohibition clauses of the Competition Act. Skífan did this by entering into agreements with Hagkaup for the sale of CDs and computer games, which involved exclusive purchasing arrangements and anti-competitive discounts. Exclusive purchasing in this context meant that Hagkaup undertook to buy, wholesale, a specified high proportion of all the relevant products exclusively from Skífan. The agreements effectively excluded Skífan's competitors in the wholesale of the specified products from doing business with Hagkaup, a major retailer of, among other things, compact discs. Skífan had also previously committed a similar offence in 2001, and that finding was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2004, with the company ordered to pay a fine of 12 million krónur. Also, in 2004, the Competition Council had to consider the merger of Skífan with other companies, where it was stated that Skífan's wholesale division was prohibited from requiring its customers that a certain percentage of their product selection in individual product categories ofprotein material was to be purchased wholesale from Skífan. Skífan (now Dagur Group) had now repeatedly breached competition law since 2001, and in a manner that was even more extensive and serious than before, and was therefore fined an administrative fine of 65 million krónur.

The case was appealed; see the decision of the Competition Appeals Tribunal in the case No. 4/2006.