According to FNE, companies coordinated the values of the foods or their adjustments, for example, through the exchange of price lists, while after a couple of years, the coordination focused on the cost of the raw materials that each one reported to their customers.
The National Economic Prosecutor's Office (FNE) has asked the Competition Defense Tribunal (TDLC) to sanction the salmon feed producing companies Biomar, Skretting and Salmofood for having executed at least one anti-competitive agreement between 2003 and 2015 that affected the price of these inputs in the country.
In the arguments held this week at the TDLC, the Deputy Head of the Litigation Division of the FNE, Eduardo Aguilera, presented part of the abundant evidence gathered by the Prosecutor's Office, which shows the collusive behavior carried out by the requested parties.
In particular, it revealed how, at first, these companies coordinated the values of the foods or their adjustments, for example, through the exchange of price lists, while after a couple of years, the coordination focused on the cost of the raw materials that each reported to their customers.
These precedents were obtained both within the framework of the plea bargain carried out by Ewos and in the entry and registration measures carried out by the Prosecutor's Office in the companies' offices during the investigation process, which ended at the end of 2019 with the filing of a request by the FNE.
Additionally, Aguilera explained in detail based on seized emails and statements collected during the investigation, how the food producers implemented the agreement throughout the period in question, and which the main executives of each of the required companies participated, including general managers, commercial and purchasing managers. All this translated into the manipulation of the reported prices. and charged to their customers.
Given the seriousness of the conduct and the duration of the cartel, the FNE asked the TDLC to impose on each of the three respondents the maximum fines allowed under the law in force at the time: 30 thousand annual tax units (UTA), equivalent to more than 24,800 million pesos each, or 75,500 million pesos combined, amounting to US$79.8 million.
