EU: Vestager: We are close to decision on packaging cartel

Regulators are close to fining a group of 13 companies, which includes Finnish packager Huhtamaki, charged with taking part in a cartel nearly three years ago, the European Union’s antitrust chief said on Monday.

The European Commission sent charge sheets to 13 companies in September 2012, saying they may have fixed prices and allocated markets among themselves for up to eight years in breach of European Union rules.

The EU competition watchdog did not name the companies which make plastic trays for packaging fresh food such as meat and poultry for retail producers.

European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager told a European Parliamentary hearing in Strasbourg that the case was crucial for the food industry.

“On the food packaging, we are actually right now in terms of the final stages of investigating abuse of the market within food packaging because there seems to have been collusion in some European markets,” she said.

Full content: Reuters

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