Nestlé has faced a fine of Tl346.9m ($11.2m) from competition officials in Turkey for violating competition laws.
Back in January, Nestlé, known for Aero chocolate, was found to have breached Turkey’s law on the Protection of Competition.
Rekabet Kurumu, the country’s competition watchdog, determined that Nestlé had violated Article 4 of the legislation, which prohibits actions that impact competition in a particular market for goods or services.
The Fitness cereal producer was found to have breached the law by manipulating distributor resale prices and imposing restrictions on distributors.
Following a unanimous decision, Nestlé has been fined Tl346.9m, exceeding the initially estimated Tl260m.
The company has the option to challenge the decision within 60 days at the Ankara Administrative Courts.
In response to inquiries, a Nestlé spokesperson stated, “We are waiting for the full reasoned decision and cannot comment further at this time.”
As reported by Global Competition Review, Nestlé intends to contest the sanction.
Nestlé, along with dairy giant Danone and four Turkish food companies, including Eti Gida and Horizon Fast Consumption, had been under investigation for allegedly violating competition laws by sharing pricing information.
Danone was cleared of any violations by Rekabet Kurumu, while Eti and Horizon Fast Consumption were found guilty of similar breaches to Nestlé and were fined Tl36m and Tl55m respectively.
