Colombia: Fines on sugar producers ratified (and reduced)

Colombia’s Superintendence for Industry and Commerce (SIC) has ratified the fines levied on 12 sugar producers and 14 high executives in the sugar industry, as well as the industry associations Asocaña, Clamsa and Dicsa. The entities have been found guilty of obstructing competition and manipulating the market through unjustified imports of the commodity.

The SIC ratified the fines on the 12 companies and executives, accused of collaborating, facilitating, authorizing, executing or tolerating behavior classified as Cartel Building. Four of the companies were granted a small reduction in their fines, while two executives were acquitted of all charges.

The government regulator approved a reduction on the fines for Asocaña after carrying out a review of the associations’s financial statements, which were handed over by the union during the investigation proceedings. The agency concluded that “business cartelization was the result of several years of continuous, coordinated conducts which sought to obstruct the import of sugar from abroad.”

Full content: Semana

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