Nestle, Mars, Hershey etc accused with chocolate Price- Fixing !

[tjthemanto]

No wonder chocolate bars are so expensive in convenience stores , grocery stores , gas stations and super markets

Dollarama 65 cents ..here I come ..even those used to be 50 cents earlier ..but I guess price fixing got them too

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp...c=reutersworld

Canada accuses Nestle, Mars of chocolate price-fixing


OTTAWA: Canadian authorities charged Nestle, Mars and a network of independent wholesale distributors on Thursday over an alleged criminal conspiracy to fix the prices of leading chocolate bars.
Competition Commissioner John Pecman called their alleged actions "egregious anti-competitive behavior that harms Canadian consumers" and "a serious criminal offense."
A whistleblower triggered the investigation that uncovered "evidence suggesting that the accused conspired, agreed or arranged to fix prices of chocolate products," the Competition Bureau said in a statement.
Three individuals were also charged: Robert Leonidas, former president of Nestle Canada; Sandra Martinez, former president of Confectionery for Nestle Canada; and David Glenn Stevens, head of Canadian food distributor ITWAL.
If convicted, they face a fine of up to Can$10 million (US$9.75 million) and imprisonment for a term of up to five years.
The indictments follows similar charges against chocolate sellers in Germany, including Nestle and Mars, that resulted in multimillion dollar fines last January.
Canadian officials said Hershey Canada Inc., an alleged co-conspirator, cooperated with the anti-trust investigation and agreed to plead guilty at a hearing on June 21 in exchange for leniency.
A fifth unnamed company that claimed to be part of the cartel revealed the scheme as part of a program offering immunity to the first party to disclose an offense not yet detected or to provide evidence leading to charges, Pierre Yves Guay, a spokesman for the Competition Bureau, told AFP.
The alleged price-fixing involved chocolate bars sold across Canada from 2002 to 2008, he said, including popular brands such as Kit Kat, Coffee Crisp, Aero, Twix, Snickers, Bounty and M&Ms.
"It's difficult, however, to estimate the amount of the overcharging because of the complexity of the pricing in that market," he said.
How the scheme worked is expected to be revealed at Hershey's trial in Toronto.
Hershey said it would plead guilty to one count of price fixing "related to communications with competitors in Canada in 2007."
The company said it had "promptly reported" the alleged scheme to the Competition Bureau at that time and insists it "did not implement the planned price increase that was the subject of the 2007 communications."
It also said the scheme was limited to the Canadian marketplace and involved former executives at the multinational's Canadian branch.
"The current Hershey Canada senior management team as well as The Hershey Company and its management had no involvement in this conduct," it said.
Nestle, however, said these were old allegations and vowed to "vigorously defend" itself.
In a statement Mars Canada Inc. said it "intends to vigorously defend itself against these allegations," but did not otherwise comment on the allegations.
ITWAL did not immediately respond to AFP requests for comment.
Nestle, Mars and five other companies faced a similar price-fixing probe in Germany in 2008, after almost simultaneous sharp price increases of up to 25 percent for chocolate and confectionery. German police raided their offices.
The groups at that time cited the rising cost of raw materials for the price increases.
Earlier this year, Nestle was fined along with 10 other chocolate and confectionery companies a total of 60 million euros (US$79.5 million) for colluding to raise chocolate prices in Germany.
A Mars subsidiary avoided penalties by cooperating with German authorities.-AFP

[Natalka]

Note this apparently is not going on currently...

Still can find chocolate really cheaply - ahem, too cheaply sometimes, lol!

Got some great deals on Hershey and Cadbury bars at LD last week! King size were .99, Cadbury regular bars were BOGO, so .55.

[cath007]

Well guess I will go to dollorama too,but still have good sale if I want some sometime

[Frugalbigmama]

Walmart has them on now and again for 50 cents each. I hate when they do that!! lol

[lghend]

Wow, I haven't seen a chocolate bar for under a dollar in years around here. But they all kinda taste waxy now anyways. I buy Russell Stover chocolate since it's still REAL chocolate. Walmart carries it for cheap. I notice now that a lot of what I used to buy says "chocolatey" coating/flavour instead of real chocolate. The Neilson packs like willowcrisp, macaroons etc. are a great example of this.

[i_forget]

Hmmmmmmm

$0.65 for a chocolate bar or $1.30 for a litre of gas.

[Natalka]

Interview I'm just listening to on CBC radio's As It Happens

The whistleblower will walk free with no fine; the second company in to tell the story was Hershey, so they will get reduced fines. They corroborated some info the whistleblower gave.
More details will be revealed when Hershey pleads guilty at the end of June.

[lghend]

And yet they have no issues with gas price fixing....hmmmm.

[KAT_5998]

Wow, I haven't seen a chocolate bar for under a dollar in years around here. But they all kinda taste waxy now anyways. I buy Russell Stover chocolate since it's still REAL chocolate. Walmart carries it for cheap. I notice now that a lot of what I used to buy says "chocolatey" coating/flavour instead of real chocolate. The Neilson packs like willowcrisp, macaroons etc. are a great example of this.

I noticed the exact same time with Tim Hortons chocolate covered donuts. Chocolate tastes more like like sugar.

I try to avoid buying chocolate (for obvious reasons ), but Lindor will always be my preferred brand.