Consumer and policy objectives underpin enforcement in key sectors

Authorities focus on consumer and retail sector (with particular attention on the agri-food supply chain)

Antitrust authorities have homed in on sectors that directly affect household budgets.

In surveyed jurisdictions during 2025, the consumer and retail sector accounted for 61 separate antitrust infringement decisions and an overwhelming 97% of all fines for vertical/non-cartel conduct (see chart below). While sanctions in this sector targeted a range of anticompetitive practices, authorities notably pursued household names, including Adidas, for engaging in resale price maintenance (RPM) as set out in more detail in Fines for vertical conduct violations drop despite continued RPM vigilance.

Within consumer and retail, the agri-food supply chain has come under particularly heavy fire.

At the production level, the Turkish antitrust authority handed out its largest fine for cartel conduct in 2025 (USD94 million) to 14 firms operating in the poultry industry. It found that the firms illegally exchanged price-sensitive information. In February 2026, reflecting a general crackdown on cartels involving food staples, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) imposed South Korea’s second-largest total cartel penalty (USD285.8m) on major sugar producers for coordinating the timing and scale of business-to-business price movements.

In the U.S., in November 2025, President Trump directed the Department of Justice (DOJ) to launch a probe into major meat packing companies for potential collusion, price fixing, and price manipulation. This was followed by an Executive Order mandating the DOJ and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to establish task forces to “aggressively investigate” practices across the agri-food sector, including the supply of seeds, fertilizers, and agricultural equipment. Then DOJ-head, Abigail Slater, described agriculture as a “top priority.”

Market reviews are also being used in Europe to root out potential antitrust concerns. 

In September 2025, the Dutch antitrust authority launched a market investigation into Dutch supermarket pricing. In January 2026, the French antitrust authority (FCA) announced the launch of its first “competitive assessments” including of the Aura buying alliance, where the FCA will examine the competitive impact of the alliance at both the supply and retail distribution levels of the markets for consumer goods. This FCA initiative follows a previous probe into the Aura alliance that resulted in commitments aimed at limiting its market power. The Italian antitrust authority (AGCM) also launched a market investigation into large-scale retail distribution within the agri-food supply chain.

Enforcement momentum surges in energy and transport

In surveyed jurisdictions during 2025, over USD2 billion of fines were issued across energy and transport sectors and these sectors made up 59% of fines imposed for cartel decisions.

Significantly, Italy’s AGCM imposed a collective USD1.1bn fine on major oil companies for allegedly fixing the value of the biocomponent factored into motor fuel prices (see Global cartel fines surge to highest level since 2021). A number of the oil companies are appealing. The AGCM also imposed abuse of dominance fines for alleged exclusionary pricing in the electric vehicle charging market and on Ryanair (USD289.1m) for refusing to supply traditional travel agencies with flights to be sold within their package holiday offerings.

The Spanish antitrust authority (CNMC) found that an electricity distribution company had abusively hindered competition in the market for the installation of electricity meters. As well as a USD5.7m fine, the CNMC prohibited the company from contracting with the public sector throughout Spain for four months. Representing “a significant milestone” in the enforcement of antitrust law in Ireland, in December 2025, five individuals were found guilty of rigging bids for the provision of publicly funded school bus transport services. Sentencing is scheduled for March 2026.

After completing a mineral oil sector inquiry in February 2025, the German antitrust authority (FCO) opened its first proceeding using the new competition tool introduced in 2023 to examine a “malfunctioning of competition” in the markets for the wholesale of fuels. The FCO could take/order measures that remedy any significant and continuing malfunctioning of competition, even in the absence of a specific antitrust law violation.

Remaining in Europe, both the European Commission (EC) and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) imposed substantial fines on car manufacturers and trade associations for their participation in a long-running end‑of‑life vehicle recycling cartel.

In APAC, the Australian federal court found oil and gas services company Qteq and its executive chairman engaged in cartel conduct by attempting to induce other suppliers to enter into cartel arrangements. The Taiwan Fair Trade Commission fined two gas companies for agreeing prices for acetylene.

Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) also continued its longstanding focus on fuel retail markets, taking action against two fuel resale cartels, one of which was comprised of 153 separate operators. New investigations are likely to be launched in 2026 as CADE seeks to root out cartel activity in the sector.

Energy and transport will likely remain a key sector of focus, especially where potential anticompetitive conduct impacts household prosperity and, in many jurisdictions, decarbonization.

Life sciences sector under the microscope

While not reflected as obviously in the statistics on fines and decisions, throughout 2025, antitrust authorities across the globe targeted conduct that could limit affordable access to essential medicines. 

In APAC, China’s Shanghai and Tianjin antitrust authorities issued fines of more than USD30m and USD50m on pharmaceutical cartels respectively, while in Europe the EC fined Alchem for its participation in a cartel that fixed minimum sales prices (and allocated quotas) of an active pharmaceutical ingredient used in antispasmodic drugs.

In the Americas, CADE took action against illegal information exchange in markets for medical supplies and physiotherapy services, as well as against a price-fixing cartel for the provision of hemotherapy services. In the U.S., in keeping with an executive order on lowering drug prices, FTC investigations prompted pharmaceutical manufacturers to remove patent listings—which can prevent entry by generics—from the Food and Drug Administration’s “Orange Book.” In addition, in February 2026, the FTC secured a “landmark settlement” with Express Scripts to lower insulin drug costs. The FTC had alleged that, together with two other large pharmacy benefit managers, Express Scripts’ conduct created an anticompetitive and unfair system that artificially inflated list prices by preferencing rebates.

The focus on pharma was evident across Europe in 2025. Romania’s Competition Council announced having issued a substantial fine against Boehringer Ingelheim for abusing its dominant position in the Romanian market for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease treatments. The Belgian Competition Authority sanctioned three pharmaceutical companies for engaging in an anticompetitive category management arrangement to place over-the-counter medicines in pharmacies. Another notable development was the CMA closing its investigation into Vifor Pharma, with the company committing to correct potentially misleading communications regarding the safety of a rival’s treatment and to make a voluntary payment to the National Health Service (NHS) (see Beyond fines, soft enforcement rises). 

Rigorous EU antitrust enforcement in the life sciences sector appears set to continue. 2025 saw dawn raids, for example, by the FCA in the cancer treatments sector and by the EC following concerns about abusive disparagement in the vaccine sector.

Investigations look primed to provide interesting guidance for businesses, as authorities develop their approach to targeted enforcement while simultaneously introducing new mechanisms to foster collaboration through innovation and research and development in this particularly capital-intensive sector—see Global cartel fines surge to highest level since 2021 on how the Belgium Competition Authority has given guidance on information exchange in the context of reimbursement applications for combination therapies.

Regulators build on work in construction and digital markets

While antitrust enforcement in consumer-facing sectors was a clear focus for regulators in 2025, enforcement in industries that have traditionally provided fertile ground for antitrust enforcement activity did not fall off the agenda.

Construction and manufacturing enforcement offers a clear example of this. Indeed, as a sector, industry and manufacturing took the top spot for cartel decisions with 32% of the total; many of these fines related to bid-rigging in construction tenders. In South Korea, the KFTC handed out 22 infringement decisions for illegal cartel activity in the sector during 2025. Similarly, multiple firms were fined in Austria for bid-rigging in construction projects. The authority’s wide-ranging, multi-year probe is ongoing.

In the U.S., individuals have remained in the firing line. A number of senior executives have been sentenced to six-month prison terms for rigging bids for roofing and asphalt paving contracts despite guilty pleas.

Construction is also a core focus for the CMA in the UK, with an investigation into bid-rigging activity by suppliers of construction services and roofing to schools gathering pace and expanding in early 2026. Notably, the CMA’s draft annual plan identifies tackling bid-rigging conduct in public tenders as a priority to strengthen public finances and protect taxpayer funds—see Beyond fines, soft enforcement rises for more detail on this strategy as a counterbalance to those tools.