Some of the world’s biggest consumer products companies, including Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser, Procter & Gamble and Gillette, have been fined a combined total of 951million euros (£748m) by the French competition watchdog for price fixing in supermarkets, reports The Guardian.
The regulator said the 13 companies, which also include Colgate-Palmolive, Henkel, L’Oréal, Beiersdorf and Johnson & Johnson’s Laboratoires Vendôme, had colluded on price increases between 2003 and 2006. “These two sanctions are among the most significant imposed to date by the competition authority,” it said.
France’s Autorité de la concurrence imposed sanctions totalling 345.2 million euros related to cleaning products and a further 605.9 million euros related to personal hygiene products, with most companies receiving two fines.
L’Oréal, the world’s largest cosmetics company, which faces the biggest share of the fines at 189.5 million euros, said it was “surprised by this decision and the amount of the fine which are totally out of proportion”. It denied anti-competitive activities and vowed to appeal. Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch maker of Dove soap, Cif cleaner and Domestos disinfectant, was handed the second biggest fine of 172.5 million euros. It will also appeal.
Dettol maker Reckitt said its French subsidiaries had been co-operating with the authorities in the investigation and a provision it made in 2013 would cover the 121 million euros in fines it faces.
The company said it “takes its obligations to comply with the law very seriously and we have instituted a robust compliance programme throughout our global operations, including France”.
Germany’s Henkel, which faces fines of 109 million euros, said it would examine the decision before deciding on further steps. It has made provisions of 39 million euros. German rival Beiersdorf, the maker of Nivea, was fined 72 million euros.