Flavor and fragrance company IFF agrees to pay $26 million antitrust settlement (updated)

Symrise AG

17/10/2025 23:19

Adds comment from IFF in paragraphs 4-5

By Mike Scarcella

Oct 17 (Reuters) - International Flavors & Fragrances IFF.N has agreed to pay $26 million to resolve part of an antitrust class action targeting alleged price-fixing in the U.S. fragrance ingredients market.

The proposed settlement, filed on Friday in federal court in New Jersey, resolves claims by a class of purchasers that bought ingredients directly from IFF. It requires a judge’s approval.

The settlement marked the first deal in the litigation and includes a cooperation component that the buyers hope to use to bolster their case against remaining defendants, including Germany’s Symrise and the Netherlands-based company DSM-Firmenich.

IFF in a statement said the settlement would resolve the “major part of the pending civil class actions” against it and that it expected to settle additional "smaller tiers" of class action claims. It said it was cooperating with unspecified regulatory investigations in multiple jurisdictions and seeking to resolve them quickly.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs — five fragrance and candle companies — did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Symrise and DSM-Firmenich also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

IFF denied any wrongdoing in agreeing to settle, and other defendants have denied the claims.

The companies were hit with a wave of antitrust lawsuits in U.S. courts in 2023 after Swiss and other antitrust authorities revealed a cartel investigation.

The direct purchasers and other groups of plaintiffs allege that IFF and other major suppliers conspired to fix prices, restrict competition and limit production of fragrance compounds.

The settlement class covers U.S. entities that purchased fragrance products directly from IFF between January 2018 and December 2023.

The proposed deal requires “full and timely” cooperation from IFF in the form of information, documents and testimony.

The plaintiffs’ lawyers said they would ask the court to award them legal fees of up to about 33% of the settlement, or about $8.6 million.

The case is In re: Fragrance Direct Purchaser Antitrust Litigation, U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, No. 2:23-cv-02174.

For plaintiffs: Linda Nussbaum of Nussbaum Law Group; Christopher Burke of Burke LLP; and Hilary Scherrer of Hausfeld

For IFF: Boris Bershteyn of Skadden Arps

Read more:

Global fragrance makers must face price-fixing case, US judge rules

 (Reporting by Mike Scarcella)