20 delivery firms fined a total of €672m for price fixing

The Autorité de la Concurrence, France’s antitrust watchdog, has fined 20 delivery firms including FedEx, TNT and DHL for fixing price increases between 2004 and 2010. The fine totals €672m, or $738.7m.

Other firms include the UK’s Royal Mail and the delivery union TLF. The French company Geodis received the heaviest fine of €196 million.

Additionally, a fine of €1.4 million was applied to 15 of these companies for their complicity in a scheme to raise diesel fuel surcharges between 2004 and 2006—from 5% to 7% annually.

According to the Wall Street Journal, this is one of the biggest fines ever issued by the French regulatory body, and follows several other efforts to dismantle cartels in the European Union.

(Source: Wall Street Journal)