Türkiye’s competition authority on Wednesday announced 13 suppliers had been handed fines totaling about TL 878 million ($47 million) after an investigation found they had provided coordination between top supermarket chains for price increases.
The fine comes as the government has been holding discussions on adopting heavier measures for supermarkets and stores that charge excessive prices for goods.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan last month said previous fines were not sufficient to punish such sellers and authorities were following the issue closely.
The Competition Authority’s (RK) investigation covered 20 enterprises, including producers, suppliers and retailers, and looked into price-setting behaviors.
The list of the companies that have been fined included some prominent names such as Coca-Cola, Eti, Pepsi, Frito-Lay, Red Bull, Haribo, Kent Gıda and GlaxoSmithKline.
Coca-Cola was fined TL 272.2 million, followed by Eti with TL 173.3 million, Pepsi with TL 92.5 million and its division Frito-Lay with TL 87.9 million. Red Bull and Haribo were handed TL 25.7 and TL 10.2 million fines, respectively.
The probe found that some suppliers formed a cartel to determine the shelf prices of grocery stores by providing coordination between the five major chain markets for price increases, local media reported.
The investigation also found that some enterprises played a role by directly determining the shelf prices in grocery stores, thus also violating the Competition Law.
Türkiye has blamed and already fined some major supermarkets after launching investigations into exploitative pricing.
Price increases in Türkiye moderated in November, signaling that inflation pressures that have been plaguing consumers for about a year and a half might be finally easing.
Annual inflation dropped below 85% last month after touching a 24-year high in October. It is expected to decline sharply in the period ahead as a result of the base effect and falling energy prices globally.
Authorities had launched simultaneous inspections at supermarkets across the country.
The Competition Authority in October last year fined the country’s five biggest retailers, namely BIM, Migros, CarrefourSA, Şok Marketler and A101 Yeni Mağazacılık, around $283 million for violating antitrust regulations.
The watchdog suggested that the companies had coordinated prices of products directly or via suppliers in a manner that was against the interests of consumers and had entered into cartel-like agreements or coordinated actions.
