European antitrust officials raided the offices of banana and pineapple suppliers this week, after a tip that the companies may have conspired to fix prices for many years, the European Commission said on Friday.
Chiquita Brands International, the US fruit giant based in Cincinnati, said on Friday that it had alerted the commission after discovering that some of its own employees in Europe had been part of a cartel scheme.
"The company's management recently became aware that certain of its employees had shared pricing and volume information over many years with competitors in Europe, and may have engaged in other conduct, in violation of European competition laws and company policies," Chiquita said in a statement.
The European Commission, which takes the lead in investigating antitrust matters in the EU, raided the offices of fruit companies in Belgium, Ireland, the UK and Germany on Thursday, it said in a statement. It did not give the names of the companies.
Brian Bell, a spokesman for Fyffes, which is based in Dublin and is a major distributor of bananas and pineapples in Europe, confirmed that antitrust officials paid surprise visits Thursday morning to its offices in Ireland and Britain.
"We are cooperating fully with the investigation," he said.
"When we asked what the visit was about," Bell said, "they told us it was part of an ongoing investigation into the banana and pineapple markets involving lots of companies both big and small."
"There was no mention of a cartel," he said.
The European division of the Dole Food Co, which is based in Westlake Village, California, was also raided, according to Reuters.
"We received a visit in Hamburg, but there is certainly no cartel," William Feeney, president of Dole Europe, told the news agency.
Fresh Del Monte Produce, based in George Town, Grand Cayman, confirmed to Bloomberg News that it, too, had been raided.
It was not clear whether other companies may have been visited by the authorities.
Chiquita said it stopped the employees' price-fixing activity as soon as it was discovered.
"The commission has granted Chiquita immunity from any fines related to the conduct, conditioned on the company's continued cooperation, among other things," Chiquita said.
Europe's competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes, has described cartels as "the most damaging kind of anticompetitive practice" and has made breaking them up one of her top priorities.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last