IDEX Exclusive: First Complaint Against De Beers Filed with EC

While many considered doing it, and few even spoke of it publicly, nine months after the European Commission announced that it does not object to the Supplier of Choice program presented by De Beers, a first complaint was filed with the EC this afternoon by a Sightholder that was dropped form the list this past May.

The name of the disgruntled Sightholder was not released by the EC, however according to sources the firm is IDH Diamonds of Antwerp, a rough diamond dealer with offices in Mumbai and Surat.

Such a complaint with the EU could be based on the following three arguments:

1. If the DTC as a dominant supplier wants to brand all diamonds, it is restricting consumer choice, as non-branded goods will be hard to find, and probably drive up prices.
2. The SoC Sightholder process allows the DTC to select Sightholders for subjective reasons as no one can check the validity of the process. A sightholder applicant that scored poorly does not know how to improve his standing if the weight of each category in the scorecard is not known and the relational standing is not clear.
3. There is no proof that the SoC branding policy is working, and there is still a need to channel rough to non-branding outlets. However, at the same time there is puzzlement in the market over the supply to Diamdel at the expense of smaller dealers.

SoC caused an uproar in many quarters of the industry bringing market leaders such as HRD head Peter Meeus and IDE president Schmuel Schnitzer to publicly criticize it, on top of much criticism that was voiced privately to De Beers management.

Brothers and co-managers Isi and Daniel Horowitz were not available to comment on this news at publishing time.