Canada Bread pleads guilty to price-fixing bread prices, fined $50M – National | 24CA News
Ontario Superior Court fined the Canada Bread Company $50 million on Wednesday after it pleaded responsible to price-fixing.
It is the best price-fixing fantastic in Canada ever, in response to the Competition Bureau of Canada.
Canada Bread pleaded responsible to 4 counts of price-fixing underneath the Competition Act, admitting that it organized with Weston Foods, a competitor, to extend the costs of varied bagged and sliced bread merchandise. Those included sandwich bread, scorching canine buns and rolls.
The price-fixing resulted in two value will increase — one in 2007 and one in 2011.
The Competition Bureau beforehand alleged that Canada Bread and Weston Bakeries, which is owned by George Weston Ltd., the dad or mum firm of grocery chain Loblaw, had agreed to extend bread costs over a 14-year interval. The two firms are the biggest bread makers in Canada.
The Bureau alleged that the businesses had instantly communicated to spice up bread costs earlier than assembly with retailers to get them to just accept the mounted costs.
At the time of the price-fixing, Canada Bread was underneath the possession of Maple Leaf Foods. The senior management of Canada Bread chargeable for the price-fixing is now not with the corporate, in response to the Bureau.
Canada Bread is at present a subsidiary of Mexico-based Grupo Bimbo, which says it’s now contemplating “all legal options against those responsible.”
The $50-million fantastic represents the utmost relevant underneath the legislation, minus a reduction utilized for Canada Bread cooperating with the investigation and making its responsible plea.
The Bureau continues to analyze alleged price-fixing by different firms, together with Metro Inc., Sobeys Inc., Wal-Mark Canada Corporation, Giant Tiger Stores Limited and Maple Leaf Foods Inc.
The news comes amid heightened scrutiny over Canadian grocers’ pricing strategies as grocery payments have skyrocketed lately. Grocer CEOs, together with Loblaw’s Galen G. Weston, have testified to the federal authorities that they aren’t profiteering amid inflation.
— with information from Global News’ Andrew Russell and The Canadian Press.
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
