The Dutch consumers and markets authority ACM has fined four cigarette manufacturers a total of €82m for price fixing between July 2008 and July 2011.

The agency says the four companies – British American Tobacco, JTI, Philip Morris Benelux and Van Nelle Tabak – illegally exchanged information about the future price of cigarettes, so they could adjust their own prices.

The information allowed manufacturers to adjust their prices to their competitors’ prices in advance, said ACM director Martijn Snoep in a press statement.

‘That distorts competition. The manufacturers knew that exchanging this type of information was at odds with competition rules. However, that did not lead to changes in their behaviour.’

In one email, a JTI employee wrote in an e-mail to a cigarette wholesaler: ‘Attached is BAT’s price list. As soon as you receive ITN and PMI, please forward them to me immediately.’

In another JTI email quoted by the ACM, an employee wrote: ‘BAT, PMI and ITN now confirmed an RSP [ACM: resale price] increase per mid 2009 of €0.10 on their total portfolio effective as of August/September. We recommend increasing our entire portfolio by €0.10 as of September 2009 improving our profitability.’

All four companies have filed objections to the fines, the biggest of which went to BAT (€31m). Three of them had also gone to court in an effort to stop publication of the ACM’s decision, but that request was turned down by a court in Rotterdam.

Read the full statement, in English