05/26/2024 – Translated from Ukrainian via Google and OFP
American confectionery giant Mondelēz was fined 337.5 million euros. The manufacturer of Milka chocolates, Dirol chewing gum and Oreo cookies and an international war sponsor was punished for anti-competitive behavior and artificially inflating food prices.
According to the European Commission, Mondelēz prohibited its distributors from reselling products between European Union (EU) countries in order to artificially inflate prices.
“The European Commission has fined Mondelēz International, Inc. €337.5 million for obstructing cross-border trade in chocolate, biscuits and coffee products between Member States in violation of EU competition rules… Territorial supply restrictions on the part of suppliers constitute non-regulatory barriers to proper functioning Single Market,” the European Commission said in a statement.
The investigation revealed that Mondelēz was involved in anti-competitive agreements or concerted practices aimed at restricting cross-border trade in various types of chocolate, biscuits and coffee. In addition, the company abused its dominant position in certain national markets to sell chocolate tablets.
Among other things, Mondelēz prohibited some wholesale customers from reselling products abroad at higher prices than in the domestic market. Other distributors who operated in certain EU member states were prohibited from selling Mondelēz products to customers in other member states without the company’s prior permission.
Mondelēz was also accused of refusing to cooperate with some companies and breaking off cooperation with others in order to prevent the resale of chocolate tablets to third EU countries.
“The Commission concluded that Mondelēz’s illegal actions prevented retail customers from freely buying the company’s products in EU member states at lower prices and artificially divided the internal market. Mondelēz’s goal was to
prevent prices from being driven down by cross-border trade within countries where they were high. This illegal practice allowed Mondelēz to continue to charge higher prices for its products, which ultimately harmed consumers in the EU ,” the European Commission concluded.
As OBOZ.UA already reported, in May 2023, the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption included Mondelez in the list of international war sponsors. The American company continues to be active in the Russian market, pays taxes and thus financially supports aggression against Ukraine. At the end of 2022, the Russian subsidiary of Mondelez paid over $61 million in taxes to the Russian budget.
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As a reminder, the fine was imposed for unfair trade practices and NOT for sponsoring a genocidal war and thus earning money soaked with human blood.
This is another aspect of the West that deserves to be criticized. As it’s spending gobs of money to help Ukraine, many Western companies still don’t give a rat’s ass about paying taxes to the very entity that’s using those funds to finance their war and slaughtering innocent civilians each and every day.
The West is largely an entity that’s deeply hypocritical, phony, and perversely greedy.
How many people will think about this when they reach for a Milka or Oreo, (or a product from other sponsors of war)?