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Tax-avoiding Criminal Multinationals at it Again -- Colgate fined $18m
by John Rolfe via hugh - Herald Sun Saturday, Apr 30 2016, 12:22am
international / prose / post

ACCC extracts $18m fine from Colgate-Palmolive for cartel to shrink laundry powders

The consumer regulator, ACCC, has hauled various colluding multinational companies before the courts for price-fixing, cartel behaviour, and Colgate-Palmolive has been first to taste Australian justice copping the third highest fine on record ($18m) for its breaches. May Woolworths and fellow colluding companies Unilever and Cussons follow suit. The Australian public has had enough of banker/corporate fraud/criminality and conservative governments protecting them while they attempt to distract the public with union bashing Royal Commissions; however, given the ineffectiveness of the financial sector's regulator, ASIC, a toothless no-account, which suits corrupt bankers fine, it seems that only the ACCC is able to deal with CORPORATE CRIME effectively, 'onya ACCC, the Oz public are right behind you, pity the same can't be said about the elite serving Turnbull led, conservative government, which always protects the big end of town!

Turnbull and double-talking Treasurer Morrison, we already have a tough, ASIC, (useless) 'cop on the beat!'

A LAUNDRY powder maker that conspired to halve the size of products but keep prices the same has been slugged with an $18 million penalty.

The penalty against Colgate-Palmolive over “Project Mastermind” is a major victory for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which commenced Federal Court proceedings in 2013.

The ACCC has previously said it believed the aim of Mastermind was to sell super-strength powders for the “same price per wash as the equivalent standard concentrated products and not pass on the cost savings to consumers”.

Colgate-Palmolive’s Cold Power range was part of the rort.

The ACCC has also taken action against PZ Cussons and Woolworths. A hear is due to begin in June.

And while Unilever was involved in Project Mastermind it was given indemnity after it blew the whistle on the rort in 2011.

Had the scam gone undetected, the windfall for powder makers would have been as much as $146 million, according to an ACCC estimate.

The penalty agreement was reached before the court this morning.

In a statement this afternoon confirming the decision, ACCC chairman Rod Sims said: “By ordering these substantial penalties, the Court has recognised the seriousness of this conduct, which affected the supply and pricing of laundry detergents, a consumer staple.

“The information sharing understanding involved phone calls between senior managers of competing companies, many of which started as social calls, but turned to unlawful exchanges of pricing information. Any contact between competitors carries risk and while discussion of price is particularly serious, there are many topics which may lead to an anticompetitive understanding,” Mr Sims said.

“This is the equal third largest penalty that the court has ordered for breaches of the competition provisions of the Act and is an indicator of how seriously the court views the conduct.

“These penalties were based on Colgate’s turnover, under the current penalty regime for anticompetitive conduct. The ACCC regards this regime as a key tool in obtaining appropriate penalties for breaches of the Act.”

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[The message to Turnbull and his corporate-serving government is simply this, continue to protect your masters at your own peril.]

ACCC chief, Rod Sims, running rings around other questionable regulatory agencies

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