BBC- Vitamin makers fined $750m The cartel was in bulk vitamins, such as those added to breakfast cereals

Vitamin makers, including European firms Roche and BASF, have been fined a record 855m euros ($752m) by the EU for operating an illegal price cartel.

The cartel forced consumers around the world to pay more for products containing vitamins.

Between 1990 and 1998, salesmen from several companies agreed cartel prices for different vitamins, a senior analyst told the BBC's World Business Report earlier this week.

"This is the most damaging series of cartels the Commission has ever investigated due to the sheer range of vitamins covered which are found in a multitude of products from cereals, biscuits and drinks to animal feed, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics," EU competition commissioner Mario Monti said in a statement.

The fine is the largest the EU has ever imposed, beating the 273m euro penalty handed down to the Trans-Atlantic Conference Agreement of ocean shippers in 1998.

Eight fined

Roche, a Swiss firm, was fined 462m euros for its part in the price fixing.

The company said it had made sufficient financial provision for the fine but declined further comment.

German firm BASF received a 296m euro fine.

Others fined smaller amounts included the German/US Merck, Aventis of France, Belgium's Solvay and Japanese producers Daiichi, Takeda and Eisai.

Already fined in US

Several of the companies involved, including BASF, have already been fined in the US for similar offences.

Those investigations led to further probes, including the one carried out by European authorities.

Analysts said the price of vitamins had declined rather than increased over time, so profits the companies made from the vitamins have not been large despite prices being inflated.

The case centred on prices of bulk vitamins, such as those used in breakfast cereals and animal feeds, rather than vitamins used in pills.

The cartels involved vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, D3, C, E, Beta Carotene and vitamin premixes.

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2001