Consumer giants fined over cartel

Germany’s Henkel, which alerted the European Commission to the cartel in laundry detergents, was not fined. The penalty for Unilever was 104 million euros, while P&G was fined 211.2 million euros.

The price fixing began when the companies, through a trade association, were working to make their detergents more environmentally friendly, EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia told a news conference.

“The three companies took the opportunity of these discussions on environmental agreements promoted by their trade organisation to organise a cartel,” Mr Almunia said, adding that the three agreed not to decrease prices when making their packages smaller and even agreed later to raise prices.

As part of the commission’s settlement procedure, the EU watchdog cut the fines by 10 per cent in return for the firms’ admission that they participated in the cartel, which the commission had dubbed ‘Purity’ in its investigation.

“By acknowledging their participation in the cartel, the companies enabled the commission to swiftly conclude its investigation,” Almunia said in a statement.

The fines were also reduced under the commission’s leniency programme related to voluntary disclosure of information.

The cartel operated in Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands between 2002-05, the regulator said. The commission can fine companies up to 10 per cent of turnover.