The European Commission pressed ahead Thursday with its investigation into a cartel suspected of driving up the price of canned mushrooms by pointing its finger at a Spanish manufacturer. The European Union executive suspects that the company, Riberebro, may have colluded with different manufacturers to fix the price of canned mushrooms sold under brand labels other than their own. The Commission has concerns that Riberebro may have colluded with other market participants within the EEA to allocate customers and coordinate prices of so-called “private label” canned mushrooms (i.e. manufactured by one company to be sold under another company’s brand name). If established, such behaviour would violate EU rules that prohibit anti-competitive business practices such as collusion on prices and market sharing.
Last June, the commission imposed a fine of 32 million euros (35,2 million dollars) on French company Bonduelle and two Dutch firms, Prochamp and Lutece, who all said they had taken part in the cartel, which operated between September 2010 and February 2012.
Riberebro refused a settlement at the time. If, after the parties have exercised their rights of defence, the Commission concludes that there is sufficient evidence of an infringement, it can adopt a decision prohibiting the conduct and imposing a fine of up to 10% of a company’s annual worldwide turnover.
Source: Europa.eu
