Firms fined for soap price fixing

FOUR of the biggest suppliers of washing powder in France have been found guilty of price-fixing - and three of them have been hit with fines totalling €361m.

The French competition watchdog, l'Autorité de la Concurrence, found directors from Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Henkel and Colgate-Palmolive met frequently between 1997 and 2004 to artificially manipulate prices and discuss strategy.

The four groups own about 90% of the detergent market in France. Procter & Gamble was ordered to pay €233.6m, based on its market share, Henkel €92.3m and Colgate-Palmolive €35.4m. Henkel says it will appeal.

Unilever escaped a fine because it was the first to co-operate with the authorities in their investigation.

Autorité de la Concurrence président Bruno Lasserre told Le Figaro that the ruling was "very important" because it related to everyday consumer goods.

It is the authority's third biggest fine, behind a €534m penalty on mobile phone operators in 2005 and €384.9m against French banks last year.