France: 20 parcel carriers fined $739 million for price fixing

France’s competition watchdog fined parcel delivery services including units of Deutsche Post AG’s DHL, FedEx Corp. and TNT Express NV a combined $737 million for colluding to increase fees.

Geodis SA, owned by French railway company SNCF, received the largest single penalty of 196.1 million euros, while La Poste SA’s Chronopost was fined 99.2 million euros and DHL’s French unit must pay 81.2 million euros, France’s Autorite de la Concurrence said in a statement on its website.

The French competition authority said 20 companies and an industry group coordinated annual rate increases from 2004 and 2010 and 15 of the companies also colluded on a fuel surcharge from 2004 to 2006. Regulators reduced fines for six smaller parcel firms because of financial difficulties.

Tuesday’s penalties include a 44.9 million-euro fine for DPD, also owned by La Poste, while FedEx was fined 17 million euros and TNT was ordered to pay 58.5 million euros, the French authority said. Kuehne + Nagel International AG’s Alloin unit must pay 32 million euros, and GLS, owned by Royal Mail PLC, was fined 55 million euros.

Full content: The Wall Street Journal

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