Pfizer to pay $20m US fine in price-fixing

19 July 1999 20:20  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (CNI)--Pfizer has agreed to plead guilty and pay criminal fines totalling $20m (Euro19.4m) for participating in two international price-fixing conspiracies, the US Justice Department announced Monday.

Pfizer is charged with participating in a conspiracy to raise and fix prices and allocate market shares in the US for sodium erythorbate, a food preservative. It is also charged with allocating customers and territories for maltol, a flavouring agent.

The Justice Department's charge against Pfizer accused it of conspiring with an unnamed sodium erythorbate producer to fix prices and allocate market shares from 1992 to 1994.

The maltol charges, which also involve an unnamed producer of the flavour, cover the period from 1989 to 1995.

The two conspiracies "affected more than $65m in US commerce," according to the Justice Department.

Pfizer officials were not immediately available for comment.

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Author: Steve Usdin
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