Lactalis, Senagral and Novandie are among 11 mainly French firms fined €193m by the country’s competition watchdog this week for participation in a yoghurt price-fixing cartel over six years.

Lactalis faces the highest penalty of over €60m. Senegral is to be fined €46m, reduced from €101m after participation in the whistleblowing.

The cartel – which operated from 2006 to 2012 – set prices for products including yoghurt, crème fraiche and fromage frais.

ADVERTISEMENT

This comes following an announcement last week by a Spanish watchdog that it was fining 11 dairy firms (including Danone, Nestlé and Lactalis) in excess of €88m for exchanging sensitive information on price & supply of unpasteurised milk in Spain.

Danone faces a fine of €23m, while Lactalis and Nestlé face penalties of €11m and €10m respectively.