October 20, 2011

Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission (FTC) on Wednesday (Oct 19) slapped the country's three largest dairy product traders with fines totalling TWD30 million (US$996,000) for colluding to fix prices.

The authorities fined Wei Chuan Corp TWD12 million, while Uni-President Enterprises Corp received a NT$10-million (US$332,000) fine and Kuang Chuan Dairy Co was levied TWD8 million (US$266,000).

The three companies, which between them control 80% of the domestic fresh milk market share, all raised their fresh milk retail prices in October after the Council of Agriculture adjusted the raw milk procurement price upward by TWD1.90 (US$0.06) per litre.

All three companies offered different reasons for their increases, but all underwent a price hike of the same scale of TWD6 (US$0.20) per litre, the FTC said.

FTC official Chang Chih-pin explained that the differences in the fines were because the enterprises are different from each other in terms of their market shares and operational revenues, as well as their willingness to cooperate with the FTC's price-fixing probe.