Blue Square Announces its Subsidiary Served With a Claim and Request for Approval as a Class Action
Israel,
June 08– BlueSquare-Israel Ltd. (hereinafter: “Blue Square”)
announced that on June 3, 2008 its subsidiary the Blue Square Chain
(Hyper Hyper) Ltd.(hereinafter: “Hyper”) was served with a claim and a
request for approvalas a class action (the “Claim”), in which Hyper is
being sued together withother defendants, regarding the marketing of
ink cartridges.
The Claim alleges that the defendants
coordinated the prices of certain Hewlett-Packard (“HP”) ink cartridges
sold by them, in a way that constitutes allegedly an agreement in
restraint of trade. According to the claim, the defendants allegedly
sell HP ink cartridges for a higher price than the price charged for
such ink cartridges by smaller retailers. The plaintiff’s personal
claim is estimated at NIS 496 and if the Claim is approved as a class
action, the approximate claim against all the defendants is estimated
by the plaintiff at NIS 81 million (against all defendants). The Claim
requests relief in the form of declaration of an agreement in restraint
of trade, monetary compensation and a mandatory injunction to stop
alleged price coordination.
Hyper is currently reviewing the
Claim and denying all above allegations, however, at this preliminary
stage of the proceedings, it is unable to evaluate its likelihood of
success in the proceedings, including the likelihood that the Claim
will be certified as a class action.Blue Square-Israel Ltd. is a
leading retailer in Israel. A pioneer of modern food retailing, in the
region. Blue Square currently operates 188 supermarkets under different
formats, each offering varying levels of services and prices. For more
information, please refer to the Blue Square-Israel Ltd. website at
http://www.bsi.co.il.