Procter & Gamble and Unilever fined for laundry detergent price fixing

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.

By Jonathan Sibun
The Telegraph, 13 Apr 2011
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
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.
"Companies should be under no illusion that the commission will pursue its relentless fight against cartels, which extract higher prices from consumers than if companies compete fairly," said Joaquín Almunia, EC vice-president.
A Unilever spokesman said no one had been fired as a consequence of the EC investigation but that a number of the staff involved had left in the interim.
The EC said the cartel was formed after the three companies worked together to improve the environmental impact of their products.
"The environmental objective, however, did not require them to co-ordinate prices or other anti-competitive practices. Henkel, Procter & Gamble and Unilever did this on their own initiative," the EC said.
Unilever said it had since strengthened compliance procedures. The company, which had already made a provision against a possible fine, saw its share price rise 13p to £19.28.