Unilever and Procter & Gamble fined £280m for price fixing

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

Source: The Guardian (UK)

Unilever and Procter & Gamble have been hit with fines totalling €315.2m (£281m) for fixing the price of washing powder in eight European countries.

The European Commission imposed the penalties on Wednesday after finding that the consumer goods groups had colluded over prices for more than three years. P&G must hand over €211.2m, while Unilever will pay €104m. Both fines were reduced because the companies co-operated with the investigation and agreed to settle.

The price-fixing cartel began in January 2002, according to the commission, when P&G and Unilever, along with Germany's Henkel, held talks over plans to implement an industry-wide programme to improve the environmental performance of detergents. The companies agreed to shrink the amount of packaging they used but to keep prices unchanged, and later to collectively raise prices. The arrangement lasted until March 2005 and involved products sold in Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands. (...)

Henkel avoided a fine after being granted full immunity for informing the commission about the cartel in 2008.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/apr/13/unilever-procter-and-gamble-price-fixing-european-commission

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No amount of laundry soap will wash this. :thumbsup:

[CBGLuthier]

1. They Will Just Write it off on their Taxes and add a penny to each box

[whosinpower]

6. That is a good question

Do you think they COULD write off the fine as a net loss?

That is just wrong.

[yngdip]

2. Its capitalism. How can anyone be surprised by this?

What exactly is the incentive for ethical behavior in the marketplace??

((((((((((crickets))))))))))))))

[Badsam]

4. It is just the cost of doing business.

It would have been nice if the article mentioned the earnings of both companies during that period. A couple hundred million off the top of a few billion is nothing- Im sure it really hit P&G hard.

I loved the little part of the 50% discount to P&G for helping with the investigation and speeding it through. By the way, who has the authority to waive a hundred million dollars in fines that belong to the citizens of those 7 countries in the interest of a speedy investigation? How long does a thorough investigation take when you have an insider spilling the beans (Henkel)?

[Snoutport]

3. and here? were they doing the same thing? nt

[Blue_Tires]

5. They can pay that fine out of small change, I imagine...

To them it's just the cost of doing business...

[Rex]

7. Good thing they are not nonviolent drug offenders in the States.

They would go to jail for a relatively small amount of pot...so much more dangerous than price fixing on the global market! That never hurt anyone! Cartels never hurt anyone, just DFHs do!

[tkmorris]

8. Ohhh, Europe.

For a second there I thought someone was claiming we were starting to enforce such things here in the States. Silly me.

[Kolesar]

9. I expected better than that from P&G

I don't know why.

[AngryOldDem]

12. Why?

Check out the price of a large box of Tide, and then compare it to a brand like Arm & Hammer.

I just spent nearly $13.00 on a large box of A&H -- pricey enough as it is. As I did so, I wondered just who can buy brands like Tide anymore.

[defendandprotect]

10. kr

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. Notice once again, a "civil" fine. Instead of criminal conspriacy charges.

A slap on the hand, payment of teensy bit of ill-gotten gains, and a non-disclosure settlement.

When did we stop hanging pirates?