Chips Private Label Claim
AGCM – Decision No. I871, Salty Snacks / Private Label GDO
Session of 15 April 2026
The proceeding was opened on 17 September 2024 against Amica Chips and Pata, following an anonymous report received through the Authority’s whistleblowing platform. At the time of opening, the AGCM had hypothesized coordination of the pricing proposals submitted to GDO buyers for bagged potato chips intended for private label products.
Following the inspections of 25 September 2024, the proceeding was extended to Preziosi Food and, in terms of product scope, to other salty snacks. The investigation concluded with the companies involved acknowledging their liability as part of the settlement procedure.
The decision describes a range of conduct among competitors: non-aggression pacts, accommodation bids, coordinated bids, bid abstentions, declarations of unavailable production capacity, exchanges of price quotes, and allocation of supply relating to specific GDO retail chains.
Case Overview
With the decision finalized at the session of 15 April 2026, the Italian Competition Authority (Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato) established a restrictive agreement in the private label salty snacks sector distributed through the GDO network.
According to the AGCM, Amica Chips S.p.A., Pata S.p.A. and Preziosi Food S.p.A. coordinated their respective commercial policies to allocate the supply of salty snacks — excluding croutons — intended for GDO private label products.
FdC continuously monitors investigations and decisions by Italian and international antitrust authorities, identifying the most significant and well-founded cases of anticompetitive conduct that may have caused economic damage to businesses.
In the case of the Chips Private Label Collective Claim, FdC is working to build a preliminary book of potential participants, with the aim of verifying the strength of compensation claims and evaluating the structuring of a collective action against the producers targeted by the AGCM decision.
At this stage, an initial exploratory response is sufficient: extracts, internal tables, or aggregated data on private label salty snack purchases can allow for an initial assessment of the interested company’s position.