EU hits Spanish firm with 5.2-million-euro fine over mushroom cartel

The European Union fined the Spanish vegetable company Riberebro 5.2 million euros (5.9 million dollars) for having participated in a cartel that illegally manipulated the prices of canned mushrooms.

“Access to food at competitive prices is essential for European consumers,” EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement. “The cartel for canned mushrooms affected sales to retailers throughout Europe.”

As we previously wrote about it the French company Bonduelle and the Dutch firm Prochamp agreed last year to a settlement that required them to pay 32 million euros in fines. A third participant in the cartel, the Dutch firm Lutece, was not fined as it blew the whistle on the operation.

Riberebro, meanwhile, refused to settle.

The European Commission, the EU‘s executive, thus continued to investigate the company and on Wednesday fined Riberebro for violating the bloc‘s strict competition laws. The fine was reduced by 50 per cent since the firm cooperated with the investigation.

The cartel participants had from 2010 to 2012 exchanged confidential information on tenders, set minimum prices and volume targets, and distributed customers among themselves in a bid to halt a drop in prices, according to the commission.

“Today‘s decision once again shows the commission‘s determination to sanction cartels and impose fines on all cartel participants,” Vestager warned.

The EU‘s competition watchdog can impose fines of up to 10 per cent of a company‘s annual worldwide turnover.

More information on this case is available under the case number 39965 in the public case register on the Commission’s competition website.

Source: Europa.eu