Chile: SCA and CMPC accused of price collusion

Chilean authorities are investigating a major case of collusion in Chile. SCA and CMPC are accused of having fixed prices in the tissue sector for at least ten years.

Chile’s competition authority FNE alleges that the companies SCA and CMPC were fixing prices for tissue products on the Chilean market for years. The authority has filed a complaint against the two firms before the Chilean competition tribunal (Tribunal de Defensa de la Libre Competencia – TDLC). They are accused of colluding on prices of toilet paper, paper towels, paper serviettes, facial tissues and cosmetic tissues from the year 2000 until at least December 2011. This affected CMPC’s brands Confort, Elite, Nove, Noble and Orquídea as well as SCA’s Favorita and Magiklin brands.

According to the authorities, in order to cover up their dealings the firms avoided the exchange of digital information, or communicated via personal email accounts and prepaid mobile phones.

“This is one of the largest collusion cases ever uncovered in the country”, said FNE. SCA and CMPC together control around 90% of the tissue market in Chile, where their combined sales amount to a total of about $400m, according to the authority.

Full content: Reuters

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