The Dutch competition authority NMa has fined 15 Dutch, German and Belgian flour companies a total of €81m for price fixing.

The highest fine – €13m – goes to Dutch company Ranks. The competition authorities in Belgium and Germany were also involved in the investigation.
The 15 firms, which control most of the Dutch flour market, had kept prices artificially high, meaning consumers have paid too much for bread over the past few years, the NMa said.
The companies operated as a cartel, to keep out new entrants and divide the market up between them. Companies which did not join the cartel, were taken over and then dismantled.
‘This is a serious case. Cartel agreements almost always disadvantage consumers and that is why they are forbidden,’ NMa chairman Pieter Kalbfleisch said in a statement.