The Dutch competition authority ACM has imposed fines on three egg processing firms for forming a cartel to drive down the prices paid to poultry farmers.

The companies (Interovo, Wulro and Global) operated secret price-fixing agreements between each other and coordinated egg purchases. ‘This damaged farmers who ended up getting a lower price for their eggs,’ ACM chairman Martijn Snoep said. ‘We take tough action against buyer cartels.’

Interovo, Wulro and Global bought industrial-standard eggs from the farmers to process into liquid or powdered egg products which are used by the food industry to make sauces and baked goods.

The cartel started in 2015 when Wulro and Interovo began coordinating prices, sharing suppliers, and exchanging competition-sensitive information, the ACM said. Global and Wulro began doing the same a year later.

The size of the fines was not made public because of a court order banning the ACM from doing so.