In the Philippines, the “onion cartel” was fined $ 28 million

The Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) has completed a multi-year anti-cartel investigation and imposed a record fine of 1.76 billion pesos (about $28 million) on six companies and their executives for organizing illegal trade collusion. The defendants were found guilty of artificial manipulation of the market of imported onions, which provoked an unprecedented price shock in the country.

The investigation found that the participants of the scheme used fictitious accounts and distributed quotas for the import of products between controlled importers, after which they accumulated the goods in the warehouses of Tian Long to create an artificial shortage. As a result of coordinated fraud, the retail price of ordinary onions in Philippine supermarkets during the crisis reached an absurd 800 pesos per kilogram, which exceeded the daily subsistence minimum.

In addition to applying maximum administrative penalties, the regulator sent the case file to the Ministry of Justice of the Philippines to initiate criminal cases against the organizers of the monopoly conspiracy. Such a harsh verdict would set a precedent for curbing speculation in the vital food sector.

Putin believed that Ukraine will not think to hit the marketplaces and refineries