In a long-awaited decision dated April 30, 2025, the Paris Administrative Court of Appeal upheld ITM Alimentaire International’s decision to pay a fine of 19.2 million euros for failing to comply with the French Commercial Code provisions on the drafting of a yearly convention setting out the reciprocal obligations to which the parties committed at the end of commercial negotiations.
The case starts between June 2018 and September 2020, a period during which ITM Alimentaire International (“ITM AI”) – a subsidiary of ITM Entreprises responsible for defining the strategy and commercial policy of the Intermarché and Netto banners, as well as the selection and supply of products for these banners’ sales outlets in France – was the subject of an investigation by the “Île-de-France regional and interdepartmental directorate for the economy, employment, labor and solidarity” (DRIEETS), focusing in particular on compliance with the rules of fairness and transparency in commercial relations set out in article L. 441-7 of the French Commercial Code as it stood prior to Ordinance no. 2019-359 of April 24, 2019 (now Article L. 441-3 of the French Commercial Code).
Following this investigation, the Île-de-France DRIEETS issued a decision on January 7, 2022, imposing an administrative fine of 19,200,000 euros for sixty-one breaches of the provisions of article L. 441-7 of the French Commercial Code, along with publication of this decision on the DGCCRF website for a period of twelve months.
In a ruling handed down on November 7, 2023, the Paris Administrative Appeals Tribunal rejected ITM AI’s request to overturn this decision.
ITM AI appealed against this decision to the Paris Administrative Court of Appeal.
The complaint was that the annual agreements signed by Agecore, a Swiss company, and ITM Belgique, a Belgian company, on behalf of ITM AI, with its suppliers or their parent companies did not mention commercial cooperation services, in breach of the provisions of the French Commercial Code, which requires that the conditions under which the distributor provides the supplier with commercial cooperation services in connection with the resale of its products be mentioned.
The Paris Administrative Court of Appeal pointed out that « the annual framework contracts concluded between suppliers and distributors apply to all operators doing business on the French market, and these contracts must include services designed to promote the marketing of products, whether or not they are actually provided by the distributor to its suppliers on the national territory” – and confirms ITM AI’s conviction.
ITM AI’s appeal to the Conseil d’Etat will be heard in the coming months.
To find out more about the annual convention, click here.