*Updated on 18/12/2009 with information from Fresh Del Monte Produce and Dole Food Company*
The European Commission has confirmed that it has sent a Statement of Objections under EU antitrust rules this month to a number of companies active in the import and marketing of bananas, concerning their alleged participation in an illegal cartel.
The move follows a series of unannounced inspections carried out by the Commission in southern Europe during November 2007, which were sprung on the trade with a view to enforcing the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU on restrictive business practices.
Today's Statement of Objections represents a formal step in the Commission's antitrust investigations, one in which the Commission informs the parties concerned in writing of the objections that have been raised against them.
'The addressee of a Statement of Objections can reply in writing, setting out all facts known to it which are relevant to its defence against the objections raised by the Commission,' a spokesperson said. 'The party may also request an oral hearing to present its comments on the case.'
The Commission is expected subsequently to take a decision on whether the conduct addressed in the Statement of Objections is compatible or not with the TFEU's anti-trust rules.
'Sending a Statement of Objections does not prejudge the final outcome of the procedure,' it added.
While the companies involved in the alleged cartel have not been named by the European Commission, US-based Fresh Del Monte Produce has revealed that neither it nor any of its subsidiaries have received Statement of Objections as part of the investigation.
Similarly, Dole Food Company announced that none of its entities were addressees of the Statement of Objections, saying that it had 'cooperated with the European Commission in its inquiries, while maintaining that it had not violated European competition law'.
Last year, the EU handed out fines to Dole and Weichert totalling €60.3m (US$82.4m) for price fixing in violation ofthe European Union's anti-trust laws between 1 January 2000 andDecember 2002 in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden.
Following a three-year investigation, EC officials found US-based Dole Food Company and German firm Internationale Fruchtimport Gesellschaft Weichert & Co guilty of forming a cartel that colluded on prices for bananas in several northern European markets.
A third importer, Chiquita, was deemed to be exempt from being fined as it had originally blown the whistle on the price-fixingactivity.
Germany-based Inter Weichert subsequently lodged an appeal against the decision.
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