It has taken over three years of intensive investigations. But the EU has decided that the time is now ripe to announce heavy fines for a well-known bunch of banana growers guilty of operating a price-fixing cartel in eight European Union countries.

Chiquita Brands and Dole Food were among the producers found guilty of rigging import prices into a market worth around Euro 3 billion annually. Because of their ‘whistle-blowing’ role in outing the cartel, Chiquita have been given immunity from the fines. In contrast, Dole faces a liability of over Euro 45m for its key role in the price-fixing agreement. Del Monte is also involved and has been fined $19.8 million, but Fyffes was not part of the anti-trust investigation. Tough EU competition laws now allow businesses who suffered commercial damage from the banana price fixing cartel to take legal action against the growers / importers.