CEOs and owners of Victory, Yochananof, Super Bareket supermarkets indicted for price fixing

Sharon Wrobel is a tech reporter for The Times of Israel.

For illustration: Victory supermarket in Tel Aviv, November 19, 2019. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)
For illustration: Victory supermarket in Tel Aviv, November 19, 2019. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

The national competition watchdog files first indictments against CEOs, senior executives, and owners of several supermarket chains for engaging in cartel behavior and in attempts to coordinate prices.

Lawyers at the Israel Competition Authority issue indictments against Victory owner and CEO Eyal Ravid, Yochananof owner and CEO Eitan Yochananof, and Super Bareket CEO Ephraim Tshuva, along with other managers of the chains. Lawyers at the watchdog are prosecutors on behalf of the attorney general, and therefore permitted to file indictments.

The indictments follow a complex investigation that goes back to 2021, on suspicions that the managers of the supermarket chains were engaged in cartel behavior and price fixing in violation of the Competition Law, as well as in breach of the Food Law.

Since the start of the investigation, Ravid has been probed a number of times by the competition watchdog for making public statements about prices to signal to major food retailers that the chain was considering raising prices in an attempt to reach a restrictive arrangement with them on price hikes.

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