Food Delivery Firms Hit by Fresh EU Antitrust Raids

Samuel Stolton, Bloomberg News

A European Union (EU) flag next to the European Commission building in Brussels, Belgium, on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. Eurozone countries and the European Central Bank need to coordinate fiscal and monetary policies as they strive to bring inflation down to the ECB’s target of 2%, according to Belgian Finance Minister Vincent Van Peteghem. , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Delivery Hero SE sites in Berlin and Barcelona were hit by a second wave of European Union antitrust raids as regulators hunted for evidence of illegal pacts to share sensitive commercial information and avoid poaching their rival’s staff.

The European Commission said Tuesday that the investigations were an extension of similar raids carried out in 2022, which focused on the carving up of markets in two member states.

Berlin-based Delivery Hero confirmed that the EU had conducted new raids, adding that it’s cooperating with the commission. The firm’s Glovo unit in Spain said in a separate statement that its Barcelona site was targeted. Both were involved in the EU’s investigations last year.

Shares in the company fell 2.5% at 2:29 p.m. in Frankfurt while Germany’s benchmark index advanced.

The antitrust scrutiny follows a tough time for the delivery industry, with pandemic-era lockdowns ending and takeout orders declining sharply as more people return to restaurants. Antitrust watchdogs are ramping up their surprise inspections of firms after the Covid crisis brought the so-called dawn raids to a standstill.

See: Delivery Hero Raided by EU Over Antitrust Concerns

The latest move follows similar evidence-gathering swoops by EU regulators on premises of construction chemicals firms last month. Such raids are a preliminary step and the EU may start formal proceedings if evidence shows the companies broke the bloc’s antitrust rules. They’re also not an indication of guilt.

(Updates with Delivery Hero statement in third paragraph.)