The EU commission hit washing powder giants Procter & Gamble and Unilever, makers of Ariel and Persil, with over €300 million in fines today for running a price-fixing cartel in Europe.

They claim whiter than white results, but housewives the world over finally landed proof that the washing powder giants behind Ariel and Persil, by their own admission. ran a price-fixing cartel for years.

Global giants Procter & Gamble and Unilever received fines from the European Commission, which polices business abuses across the European Union, totalling 315.2 million euros ($456 million) after settling a long-running cartel case.

Another company, 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.

"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," EU competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in revealing the penalty.

"By acknowledging their participation in the cartel, the companies enabled the commission to swiftly conclude its investigation, and for this they got a reduction of the fine," of 10 percent, he added.

The secret deal to fix prices arose out of a plan through a trade association "to improve the environmental performance of detergent products," the commission noted.

The companies fixed prices in Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands.