Well here’s a bizarro tale for your Friday afternoon: Woolworths has been slugged with a $9 million fine for its involvement with a laundry detergent cartel.
According to reports, Woolies admitted to being “knowingly concerned” about an arrangement between laundry detergent giants Colgate-Palmolive, PZ Cussons and Unilever.
Years ago, all three parties agreed that they’d stop supplying standard concentrates to Woolies in early 2009, and only supply ultra concentrates – which are more concentrated and therefore cheaper to produce and ship – instead.
However, the consumer watchdog alleged that the agreement meant those savings were not passed on to consumers, knowledge of which has resulted in Woolies copping the said $9 million fine.
“This penalty is the largest the ACCC has obtained against a party that was an accessory to competition law breaches by being knowingly concerned in anticompetitive conduct,” said ACCC chairman Rodd Sims in a statement.
Colgate has already been slugged an $18 million penalty for admitted breaches in relation to the same incident. PZ Cussons, on the other hand, is maintaining its innocence.
Source: ABC / The Australian.
Photo: Getty / Torsten Blackwood.
