China fines infant formula companies for price-fixing
China has levied a record fine of 670 m yuan ($109m; £71m) on six
producers of infant formula for price-fixing, the state media said.
The six companies involved were Mead Johnson, Biostime, Dumex, Abbot,
Friesland and Fonterra, it said.
The move follows an antitrust and anti-competition probe by
authorities.
Consumers in China are willing to pay more for foreign brands after
six children died by drinking tainted milk produced locally in 2008.
The fines, announced by China's top economic planner, the National
Development and Reform Commission, coincides with a separate pricing
investigation into the pharmaceutical industry.
Five of the companies named in the probe are foreign while one,
Biostime, is listed in Hong Kong.
US-based Mead Johnson, which makes the Enfamil formula, said it would
pay $33m in penalties. Biostime said its local unit was fined $26.3m.
Fonterra said it was fined $720,000.
According to Xinhua news agency, three companies - Wyeth, Beingmate
and Meiji - avoided fines because they co-operated with the probe.
In 2008, six children died and 300,000 took ill across China after
the chemical melamine was found in locally produced infant formula.
This incident is why many Chinese parents do not trust local brands
and prefer to buy foreign infant formula - which can be much more
expensive.
Authorities have said they are investigating the possibility that
suppliers have set a minimum price for their distributors. That is
common practice in some markets, however Chinese regulators see this as
illegal under the anti-monopoly law.
China's fast-growing dairy industry was in the spotlight last week
after the country limited imports of products that contained a raw
ingredient made by Fonterra because some batches had been contaminated
with a bacteria that can cause botulism.
On Wednesday, Fonterra said that all products that contained the
bacteria had been removed from shelves.
"All the stocks have been contained, everything is out of the market.
It's in warehouses and there is little or no more risk for consumers,"
Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings told reporters.
BBC
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