The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has accused four vegetable-growing companies and three executives of being part of a price-fixing cartel. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The ACCC said the group allegedly worked together to fix the price of fresh produce supplied to Aldi stores in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland between 2018 and 2024.<\/p>\n
The vegetables included broccoli, cauliflower, iceberg lettuce, cucumber, Brussels sprouts and zucchini.<\/p>\n
ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said cartel conduct was anti-competitive and illegal.<\/p>\n
“Businesses acting together instead of competing can drive up prices and harm consumers, while disadvantaging other businesses that are seeking to compete fairly,” she said.<\/p>\n
Gina Cass-Gottlieb says competition in fresh food pricing is important for consumers. (ABC News: John Gunn)<\/p>\n
Civil proceedings started in the Federal Court on Monday against the four suppliers, Perfection Fresh Australia, Hydro Produce, Veli Velisha Fresh Produce and Velisha National Farms, and M. Fragapane & Sons.<\/p>\n
The ACCC also alleges Velisha National Farms chief executive, Catherine Velisha, Velisha National Farms senior sales manager Kaushik Vora and M. Fragapane & Sons general sales manager Roberto Nave of being involved in the cartel.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Velisha Farms said: “The allegations being made by the ACCC are very serious and we do not accept them.”<\/p>\n
“We have retained lawyers and intend on defending these proceedings.<\/p>\n
“As this matter is currently before the Federal Court, it is not appropriate that we make any further comments at this stage.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Catherine Velisha is accused of being part of a price fixing cartel. (ABC Rural: Jane McNaughton, file photo)<\/p>\n
Perfection Fresh is the second-largest vegetable supplier in the country.<\/p>\n
“In this instance, we allege that price-fixing conduct involving some essential household vegetables took place across three states,” Ms Cass-Gottlieb said.<\/p>\n
“Protecting competition in our fresh food supply chains is extremely important to drive price competition for the benefit of Australian consumers,” she said.<\/p>\n
The ACCC says cartel behaviour can drive up prices. (Supplied: Choice)<\/p>\n
In a statement a spokesperson for Perfection Fresh said the company was working with the ACCC to try and resolve the matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Perfection Fresh has been working with the ACCC with a view to resolving these proceedings,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
“It would not be appropriate for Perfection Fresh to provide further comment on the matter while it is before the courts.<\/p>\n
“Perfection Fresh remains committed to conducting its business with integrity, transparency, and in full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.”<\/p>\n
The ACCC allegations include 28 occasions where two or more of the suppliers made, or tried to make arrangements to control or maintain vegetable prices.<\/p>\n
On another 48 occasions, one or more of the suppliers were accused of submitting prices to Aldi relating to the arrangements.<\/p>\n
The ACCC said most of the accusations were related to agile pricing, which is when suppliers were required to submit weekly quotes to supermarkets.<\/p>\n
If found guilty of cartel behaviour, the businesses face fines of up to $50 million and the individuals face a maximum penalty of $2.5 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has accused four vegetable-growing companies and three executives of being part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[49208,64,63,99,9752,78949,2185,26687,78950],"class_list":{"0":"post-110346","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-aldi","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-cartel","13":"tag-price-fixing","14":"tag-rural","15":"tag-supermarkets","16":"tag-vegetable-growing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}