December 3 ,2007

JBS settles cartel charge, donates millions to antitrust fund

Brazilian beef giant JBS S.A. on Thursday (November 29) said it signed a "term of commitment" with the Brazilian government's antitrust agency to adopt an internal competitive compliance program and donate about US$7.65 million dollars (R$13.7 million) to the agency's antitrust prevention programme.

The agreement ends charges that JBS joined with other Brazilian companies in a cartel to fix prices around cattle acquisition and slaughter. JBS said the agreement "does not implicate in a confession nor in a recognition of guilt or of any wrongdoing by JBS."

JBS also agreed to increase internal policies in order to prevent violating competitive practices in the future.

"The general objective of the Term of Commitment is to preserve, protect and establish competitive market conditions for the acquisition of cattle for slaughtering in Brazil, under which JBS agrees not to establish nor make use of standardized discount tables for the acquisition of unclassified cattle," JBS said in a statement. It added, however, that it will continue to define and practice price discounts for cattle that do not fulfil quality requirements (weight, sex etc.).

The donation went to Brazil's Administrative Council for Economic Defence (CADE) Diffuse Rights fund.