Romania's Competition Council launched on March 30 three investigations into possible price-fixing deals among producers of sunflower oil, butter and sugar.

Unannounced inspections were already carried out, authorized by the Bucharest Court of Appeal and justified by the need to obtain all the information and documents necessary to clarify the possible anti-competitive practices.

"We have suspicions that some producers have taken advantage of the current economic context (high inflation) and have agreed to further increase the selling prices for some products, thus obtaining higher, undeserved profits. If we identify such practices as a result of the investigations, we will issue drastic sanctions," said Bogdan Chirițoiu, president of the Competition Council, according to Profit.ro.

Thus, during the three investigations, unannounced inspections were carried out at the headquarters and work points of several companies in the market of production and sale of sunflower oil, such as Bunge Romania, Expur, Prutul and Ardealul.

On the market of butter production and marketing, among the companies investigated are Albalact, Covalact and Dorna Lactate (part of the Lactalis group), Friesland Romania, Lacto Food and The Brasov Milk Factory (Olympus).

Regarding the sugar manufacturing and marketing market, inspections were carried out at the companies Agrana Romania, Pfeifer & Langen Romania and Lucsor Impex.

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Ryzhov Sergey | Dreamstime.com)