PARIS
Procter & Gamble Co, Colgate- Palmolive Co and Henkel were fined
€361.3 million ($464 million) by French antitrust regulators for fixing
the price of laundry soap. P&G, the maker of Ariel washing powder,
was fined €233.6 million and Colgate must pay €35.4 million for
colluding with others to set prices for detergent from 1997- 2004, the
French regulator said in a statement on its website. Henkel, the German
maker of Persil, was fined €92.3 million. Unilever wasn't fined because
it was the first company to supply evidence to the French regulators.
The fine is the largest imposed by the French competition authority this
year in light of “the particular seriousness” and the “undoubted” harm
to the economy, the regulator said. The French directors for the
manufacturers, known by code names like Hugues, Pierre, Louis and
Christian, met as many as four times a year at Paris-area hotels and
restaurants to agree on the prices and promotions they would offer
retailers, it said.
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