EU fines French-Dutch canned green beans cartel

Bonduelle SA

27/09/2019 13:45

BRUSSELS, Sept 27 (Reuters) - The European Commission has
imposed a fine of more than 30 million euros on French and Dutch
firms that it found had run a cartel for more than 13 years
which inflated prices of green beans, peas and other canned
vegetables in the European Union.
    French firm CECAB received a 18-million-euro ($19.6
million)fine while the Dutch company Coroos will have pay 13.6
million euros for their participation in the cartel, the EU
commission and antitrust regulator said in statement released on
Friday.
    France's canned vegetable giant Bonduelle has escaped a
250-million-euro fine because it revealed the cartel, the
commission said. 
    The other two companies had their fines reduced because they
cooperated in the investigation and admitted their wrongdoing,
the EU executive said. The cartel operated between 2000 and
2013.
    As part of the investigation, the Commission is also
pursuing its enquiry on Italian company Conserve Italia. This
investigation is underway.
    "European consumers should have access to food at affordable
prices. But instead of competing with each other, Coroos and
Groupe CECAB agreed to divide the market among themselves and to
fix prices for canned vegetables across Europe," EU antitrust
commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.
($1 = 0.9146 euros)

 (Reporting by Francesco Guarascio @fraguarascio)
 ((Francesco.Guarascio@thomsonreuters.com; @fraguarascio; +32 2
287 68 17;))