Dairy decision expected by May
The Competition Commission is expected to announce a decision regarding possible fines for the dairy companies involved in incidents of price fixing by May, said Deputy Development Minister Yiannis Papathanassiou. The government’s General Directorate for Competition has implicated 17 dairy producers and retailers on four counts of price fixing and other cartel practices. The case is considered to be one of the most important in the commission’s history, involving some of the country’s largest firms and millions of consumers. «Knowing the procedures that are followed by the Competition Commission and what has been said by the (commission’s) president, I believe that the issue will be complete by the end of April,» the deputy development minister told Kathimerini in an interview. «Of course, we should not overlook the fact that in related cases all over the world investigations documenting these sorts of allegations take a lot of time and work due to the seriousness of the charges.» The president of the Federation of Greek Industries (SEV), Dimitris Daskalopoulos, has described the report as «a joke» and said that it has no legal standing. Daskalopoulos is also head of Vivartia, one of Greece’s largest dairy companies. Papathanassiou added that the commission is examining other possible cases of price fixing in the petrol industry.
