Germany-based confectioner Haribo will not appeal against a fined imposed by the country’s competition watchdog for improperly sharing information on sales negotiations with three rivals.
The Bundeskartellamt said yesterday (1 August) it had imposed a fine of EUR2.4m (US$2.9m) on the confectionery manufacturer and its sales representatives involved, for “exchanging competitively relevant information”.
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According to the watchdog, in 2006 and 2007, senior sales staff of the companies involved, regularly met for informal discussions, during which, the responsible Haribo staff members participated in the “reciprocal exchange of information on the state of negotiations with various major retailers”.
A spokesperson for Haribo told just-food today that the company would not make an appeal given the decision has been a “conjoint termination of the trial”.
“Haribo has been cooperating with the Bundeskartellamt from the very start of this investigation, which began in 2008.
“It is very important to consider in this case that Andreas Mundt [president of the Cartel office] has explicitly confirmed that it has not been a hardcore-infringement by Haribo – no price arrangements have been executed or the like.”
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By GlobalDataIn a statement, Mundt said: “Certain types of information exchange between companies are not permitted under antitrust law. The competition will be affected by such behaviour, even if it’s not like here in the case of Haribo to classic hard-core collusion on prices, territories, customers or quotas.”
