Survival of the fittest as one participant in animal feed cartel gets total immunity from €175m fine

Five members of an animal feed cartel have received a hefty €175m fine from the European Commission for breaching Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (formerly Article 81 of the EC Treaty). The cartel broke virtually every rule in the book by collectively monitoring and fixing prices, sharing customers, co-ordinating sales conditions and sales quotas. The cartel lasted for many years and across many territories and they met regularly, but it fell apart when the sixth member of the group blew the whistle, for which it received total immunity from fines. Until then, the group had been resilient to changes in market conditions. One participant’s fine was capped so as to not exceed 10% of its total annual turnover.