Dole, Fyffes accused of running cartel

The European Union has accused banana importers Fyffes and Dole Food Co. of running an illegal cartel to fix prices and control the supply of the fruit to Northern Europe, the companies said Thursday.

Westlake Village-based Dole disputed the charges and Ireland’s Fyffes said it was examining them.

The European Commission can impose fines of up to 10% of a company’s global sales if the accused are convicted.

Dole said it had received the charge sheet, saying it “strongly disputed” allegations that it had violated EU competition law.

Fyffes, Europe’s largest fruit and vegetable importer, and its Germany-based joint venture, Weichert, said they would examine the charges.

It said the EU had alleged that the cartel covered the EU’s largest market, Germany, as well as Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway.

A spokesman for Chiquita Brands International Inc. said the U.S. company triggered the probe when it learned two years ago that employees had shared pricing and volume information for Europe, where it has half of its global banana sales.

The first business to inform on a cartel usually receives amnesty from fines that can run into hundreds of millions of dollars. Chiquita said it had been granted immunity conditional on its continued cooperation with the investigation.