Canada Bread fined $38 mln for fixing wholesale bread prices

Maple Leaf Foods

21/06/2023 20:35

June 21 (Reuters) - Canada's Competition Bureau said on
Wednesday Canada Bread Co Ltd was fined C$50 million ($37.99
million), after it pleaded guilty for its role in a price-fixing
arrangement that raised the wholesale price of fresh commercial
bread. 
    The company pleaded guilty to four counts of price-fixing
under the Competition Act and admitted to have arranged with its
competitor, Weston Foods (Canada), to raise prices for various
bagged and sliced bread products, including sandwich bread, hot
dog buns and rolls, the Bureau said.
    At the time of the price-fixing, the bread producer and
distributor was under the ownership of Canadian packaged meat
company Maple Leaf Foods  MFI.TO , and it resulted in two price
increases - in 2007 and 2011.
    Canada Bread is now under the ownership of Mexican-based
bakery organization Grupo Bimbo  BIMBOA.MX , which acquired it
in 2014. 
    The Bureau said the penalty imposed by the Ontario Superior
Court was the highest price-fixing fine ordered by a Canadian
court to date. 
    Price-fixing is when two or more competing businesses agree
to set the same prices for goods or services.

($1 = 1.3160 Canadian dollars)

 (Reporting by Granth Vanaik in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna
Chandra Eluri)
 ((Granth.Vanaik@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter: https://twitter.com/Vanaik_Granth;))