Competition Attorney announced that Wysotsky is a monopoly in the green tea market

The Commissioner for Competition, Attorney Michal Cohen, announced today (Monday) that she has declared Wysotsky as a monopoly in the green tea market and on the liquor market. This means that Vysotsky will be defined by law as a "large supplier", as the term is defined in the Law for the Promotion of Competition in the Food Industry, and from now on All the obligations imposed on large suppliers by virtue of this law regarding the declared products apply to it.
Among the prohibitions included in the law are the prohibition to intervene in the arrangement of the shelves in the marketing chains; the Prohibition of conditioning the sale of a certain product on the purchase of another product; and a total ban on any type of intervention in the price of the product for the final customer in the networks.
In her announcement, the commissioner detailed that she found that Vysotsky is a monopoly twice - both in terms of the extent of the market it holds, and also in the excess power it has in the market. "Market power has maintained a stable dominance for Vysotsky for many years. Due to market power, Vysotsky's competitors had difficulty increasing their sales even in cases where they offered lower prices than those offered by Vysotsky and also in cases where new brands entered Israel that were successful abroad," the Authority's statement reads.
The tea market generates about NIS 250 million a year, and has been stagnant in recent years - partly due to the relatively mild winters. The market consists of three segments: green tea, herbal infusions and black tea. Each segment occupies about a third of the market. Vysotsky offers products in all categories, but in recent years has invested a lot of resources in green tea - in advertising and launching new products.
The market is indeed largely dominated by one player: Vysotsky. The company, which holds approximately 77% of the market, has been using its market dominance for many years to strengthen the brand, partly through the arrangement of shelves in the marketing chains and massive advertising. All of this allows Vysotsky to charge extremely high prices for the tea products, which are tens of percent higher than the competing brands, and the accepted prices in the world.
However, it seems that the competition for the black tea is increasing recently, as the supervisor found. "The commissioner considered declaring Vysotsky a monopoly in the black tea market and the flavored black tea market. However, the data collected following the hearing strengthened the conclusion that Vysotsky's share of black tea is less than half and is on the verge of erosion, as well as the fact that Vysotsky is a competitor who also has significant market shares in the market This. In relation to flavored black tea, after the hearing and examination of the information collected, several difficulties arose to establish that this is a clear and distinct market."
Vysotsky now has the option of appealing the commissioner's announcement at the Competition Tribunal, but it is unlikely that this decision will be changed.