EU fines Procter & Gamble-Unilever cartel

The makers of Ariel and Persil yesterday agreed to pay fines totalling €300 million for running a washing-powder cartel.

Global giants Procter & Gamble and Unilever reached settlements to pay the European Commission, which polices business abuses across the European Union market, €211.2 million and €104 million respectively.

Germany’s Henkel was also listed as a member of the cartel that operated for more than three years at the start of the last decade, but it escaped any fine having revealed the sharp practices initially in 2008.

“I will not name the brands, but they all feature prominently on the shelves of supermarkets,” said European Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia.

“I’m sure you know all the brands that were involved. Henkel, Procter & Gamble and Unilever engaged in anti-competitive practices on their own initiative and at their own risk,” he said.

Mr Almunia would not put a figure on how much the companies gained from the secret deal to fix prices that arose out of a trade association plan “to improve the environmental performance of detergent products.”

But he said he hoped the fine would prove “deterrent enough” and warned that companies in all business sectors “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.”