Introduction
EU competition law prohibits agreements and other restrictive business practices that may affect trade and prevent or restrict competition within the EU.
In June 2025, following dawn raids of the premises of the food delivery giants, Delivery Hero and Glovo, the Commission found that the two companies: (1) agreed not to poach each other's employees; (2) exchanged commercially sensitive information; and (3) allocated geographic markets in violation of EU competition law.
This is the first decision where the Commission found a cartel in the labour market and the first time it sanctioned the anti-competitive use of a minority share in a competing business.
The infringement
In July 2018, Delivery Hero acquired a minority non-controlling stake in Glovo and progressively increased this stake through subsequent investments until it acquired sole control in 2022. The Commission has found that for the intervening four years, Delivery Hero and Glovo progressively removed competitive constraints between the two companies and replaced competition with multi-layered anticompetitive coordination.
In particular, the two companies agreed:
- Not to poach each other's employees: The shareholders' agreement signed at the time Delivery Hero acquired a minority non-controlling stake in Glovo included limited reciprocal no-hire clauses for certain employees. Shortly thereafter the arrangement was expanded to a general agreement not to actively approach each other's employees.
- To exchange commercially sensitive information: Exchanging commercially sensitive information (e.g., on commercial strategies, prices, capacity, costs and product characteristics) enabled the companies to align and influence their respective market conduct.
- To allocate geographic markets: In particular, the two companies agreed to divide the national markets for online food delivery in the EEA among themselves, by removing all existing geographic overlaps between them, by avoiding entry into their respective national markets, and by coordinating which of them should enter in markets where neither was present yet.
Takeaways for Irish business
There are a number of important lessons from the case for Irish businesses:
- All the above-mentioned practices were facilitated by a minority shareholding
Horizontal cross-ownership between competitors may raise antitrust risks and should be handled carefully because it might enable anti-competitive contacts between competitors at several levels, allow a minority shareholder to obtain access to commercially sensitive information and to influence decision-making processes in its competitor and ultimately to align the two companies' respective business strategies.
- Parties' illegal conduct may be exposed by a whistleblower
The Commission has set up a tool to make it easier for individuals or companies to alert it about anticompetitive behaviour while maintaining their anonymity. The investigation in the present case had been prompted via the Commission's anonymous whistleblower tool, as well as by information received from a national competition authority.
- The no-poach agreements and other cartel behaviour punished by heavy fines
The breakdown of the fines imposed by the Commission on each party is as follows:
o Delivery Hero SE: €223 million
o Glovoapp23 SA: €105 million
The Commission applied a standard reduction of 10% to the fines as both companies acknowledged their participation in the cartel and their liability under the Commission's cartel settlement procedure (see below).
- Parties' illegal conduct may be further punished by an action for damages
Even though the Commission has fined Deliver Hero and Glovo, damages may be awarded by national courts considering that any person or company affected by the anti-competitive behaviour in this case may bring the matter before the courts of the relevant Member State(s) and seek damages.
- Parties can use the cartel settlement procedure to obtain a discount on fines
Under the settlement procedure for cartels, which was introduced in June 2008, parties acknowledge their participation in a cartel and accept the maximum amount of the fine which the Commission intends to impose which benefits them in terms of quicker decisions and a 10% reduction in fines.
- Parties may avoid fines by using the Commission's leniency programme
The Commission's leniency programme gives businesses the opportunity to disclose their participation in a cartel and cooperate with the Commission during an investigation. A successful leniency applicant will either completely avoid a potentially high fine or receive a substantial reduction from it.
For more information, please contact John Gaffney or your usual contact in Beauchamps LLP.
