Price-fixing case in Australia goes ahead
a number of multinational vitamin companies for price fixing,
despite an appeal that the country did not have jurisdiction over
the companies.
Australia's Federal Court is to proceed with a class action against a number of multinational vitamin companies for price fixing during the 1990s.
The Federal Court in Melbourne has dismissed an appeal by Roche, BASF and Aventis, which claimed that Australian courts do not have jurisdiction over international companies. The companies have already faced fines in the US and the European Union.
Law firm Maurice Blackburn Cashman will now push ahead with a class action, involving the price fixing of animal grade vitamins. Lawyers involved in the case say that thousands of businesses have been affected by the pricing.
In 2001 the EU fined eight companies €855.2 million for fixing vitamin prices. This year Roche set aside an extra $810 million for customers in the US impacted by the continuing price fixing cases.
