Castel
Castel
(Image credit: Castel)

French wine broker and producer Castel has been hit with a €4m (US$5.46m) fine for not telling France's competition watchdog that it had bought Burgundy's Patriarche.

Castel withheld its acquisition of Patriarche in May 2011 from competition officials, which meant they were unable to check whether the deal placed too much wine market power in Castel’s hands, France’s competion authority said in a verdict delivered last week.

It has fined Castel’s parent group, Copagef, €4m, to reflect the ‘seriousness’ of the case. It is believed to be only the third case of this nature that the watchdog has dealt with.

Officials said they only discovered Castel’s acquisition of Patriarche in September 2011, after they were notified by a third party contractor tasked with investigating the French wine group’s deal to gain control of another firm, Quartier Francais Spiriteux.

The competition authority subsequently investigated and approved the Patriarche deal in July 2012.

A Castel spokesperson could not be reached for comment when contacted by decanter.com.

Written by Chris Mercer

Chris Mercer
Chris Mercer

Chris Mercer is a Bristol-based freelance editor and journalist who spent nearly four years as digital editor of Decanter.com, having previously been Decanter’s news editor across online and print.

He has written about, and reported on, the wine and food sectors for more than 10 years for both consumer and trade media.

Chris first became interested in the wine world while living in Languedoc-Roussillon after completing a journalism Masters in the UK. These days, his love of wine commonly tests his budgeting skills.

Beyond wine, Chris also has an MSc in food policy and has a particular interest in sustainability issues. He has also been a food judge at the UK’s Great Taste Awards.