Colombia: Fines on diaper cartel reach US$70 million

Colombia’s competition and industry regulator, SIC, has settled the amounts of fines to be levied on three of the country’s leading diaper makers over a confirmed price-fixing scheme.

“The Superintendence for Industry and Commerce will impose sanctions on Tecnoquímicas, Grupo Familia and Kimberly-Clark, over their involvement in a decade-long (2001-2012), coordinated and continuous conduct meant to artificially fix the prices of disposable baby diapers in Colombia’s market” said the SIC.

The final amount, of close to $70 million dollars, includes fines against 16 former and current executives at the three firms, who stand guilty of “having collaborated, facilitated, authorized, executed or tolerated the conducts in violation of the Free Economic Competition regime… The investigation began in 2013, with both Kimberly and Grupo Familia submitting to Colombia’s recently introduced leniency program. This is a major step forward for competition law enforcement in Colombia”, concluded the SIC’s announcement.

Full Content: La Tercera

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