China has
issued record fines of 670 million yuan (US$108 million) to six baby formula
companies on the mainland following an antitrust probe, the country's top
economic planner announced Wednesday.
The six
companies are Biostime, Mead Johnson, Dumex, Abbott, Friesland and Fonterra,
said the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
Biostime
was fined 163 million yuan (US$26.61 million), or 6% of its sales revenue in
2012, as it "seriously violated the anti-monopoly law and failed to
actively take corrective action," said Xu Kunlin, chief of the Price
Department of the NDRC.
Mead
Johnson was fined 204 million yuan (US$33.31 million), or 4% of its revenue
last year, because it "did not actively cooperate with the investigation
but did take active self-rectification measures," said Xu.
Dumex,
Abbott, Friesland and Fonterra each received a fine equal to 3% of their 2012
revenue. They were fined 172 million yuan (US$28.08 million), 77 million yuan
(US$12.57 million), 48 million yuan (US$7.83 million) and 4 million yuan
(US$653,200), respectively.
Xu said
these four companies cooperated in the probe and actively moved to correct
their improper practices.
Three other
companies, including Wyeth, Beingmate and Meiji, were exempt from punishment,
because they cooperated with the government investigation, provided important
evidence and actively took self-rectification measures, said Xu.
Xu said
that in the probe into these nine companies initiated in March, the NDRC found
the involved formula producers set minimum resale prices for distributors. The
distributors who sold their products at a price lower than the fixed minimum
price were punished.
Xu said the
practice maintained milk powder prices at a high level, restricted competition
in the market and harmed the interests of consumers.
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