THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Unilever and Procter & Gamble (P&G), the consumer goods giants, have been handed a €315.2m (£280m) fine for their involvement in a pan-European price-fixing ring.
The European Commission (EC) found that the two companies, together with Germany's Henkel, had colluded to fix the price of washing powder in eight continental European countries between January 2002 and March 2005.
Unilever has agreed to pay €104m and P&G €211m following the investigation which was launched in June 2008. The scale of the fines reflect the size of the groups' businesses in the eight countries.
Henkel was spared a fine after it informed the EC of the cartel's existence. P&G's fine was reduced by 50pc after it co-operated with the EC's investigation, with Unilever receiving a 25pc reduction after subsequently also co-operating. Continue reading and comment » | Jonathan Sibun | Wednesday, April 13, 2011
