France’s competition authority handed the country’s top yogurt makers 192 million euros in fines for fixing prices over the course of several years.
Prosecutors say those involved struck secret deals in hotel rooms and on special phone lines created to avoid detection. The ruling found that the companies agreed on how and when to raise prices from 2006 to 2012, and divided up volumes, seriously disturbing the market.
The decision affects 11 companies – including Yoplait and Lactalis – that represent 90 percent of the French market in yogurt and related dairy 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 punishment.
Lactalis said it would appeal the decision, arguing in a statement that the fines “overestimate in an obvious way the gravity of what happened, and their impact on the economy.” The company insisted that it is committed to obeying the law.
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