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French court fines yoghurt makers almost 200m euros for price fixing

Eleven companies, including Yoplait and Lactalis Nestlé, were found to have pre-agreed prices for supplying supermarket-branded yoghurts.

La rédaction de Mediapart

12 March 2015 à 20h09

This article is freely available.

France’s competition authority has fined the country’s dominant yoghurt makers a total 192.7 million euros ($203 million) for fixing prices over several years, reports the Hindu BusinessLine.

The decision announced today targets 11 companies, including Yoplait and Lactalis Nestlé, that represent 90 per cent of the French market in yoghurt and related products.

The cartel was uncovered thanks to a special procedure that allows companies to report their own price-fixing activity to regulators in exchange for reduced fines. Yoplait was the first company to report the activity, and was given no fines.

The companies agreed on how and when to raise prices from 2006 to 2012, as yoghurt executives held secret meetings via dedicated phone numbers and in hotels, a well-known Paris café and an apartment, according to the ruling.

Read more of this article from the Hindu BusinessLine.

La rédaction de Mediapart

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