Delivery Hero could face 400 million euro antitrust fine

The Berlin-based food takeaway firm Delivery Hero is warning investors that the European Commission might impose a 400 million euro fine.

The fine the company faces is for “alleged anti-competitive agreement to share national markets, exchanges of commercially sensitive information and no-poach agreements,” Delivery Hero said in a statement Sunday evening.

After unannounced inspections by the European Commission in July 2022 and November 2023 on the offices of Delivery hero and its Spanish subsidiary Glovo, the board decided to create a provision in the amount of 186 million euros.

Now that the company is facing a fine that could potentially exceed 400 million euros, the board intends to increase that number.

Delivery Hero promises to fully cooperate with the investigation of the European Commission.

A spokesperson for the European Commission declined to comment on the matter.

Press agency Reuters says that analysts at investment banking and capital markets firm Jefferies wrote in a note that neither the amount of the fine nor the ability to pay it is the biggest challenge for Delivery Hero, but rather “the fact pattern it creates”.

Delivery Hero is a German online food ordering and food delivery company that was founded in 2011. It operates in over 70 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, South America and the Middle East with over 500,000 partners.

In the third quarter of 2021, Delivery Hero processed more than 791 million orders. Almost 50,000 employees work at the food delivery company.