March 31 (SeeNews) - Romania's anti-trust authority, the Competition Council, said that it is investigating potential coordinated market behaviour between 13 producers of sunflower oil, butter, and sugar, which may not be compliant with a regular competitive environment.
The anti-trust body conducted unexpected inspections at the companies' workstations as part of the probe, it said in a press release on Thursday.
"We suspect that some producers have taken advantage of the current economic context, respectively rising inflation, and agreed to further increase the selling prices for some products, thus obtaining higher, undeserved profits," said Bogdan Chiritoiu, president of the Competition Council.
The companies targeted by the investigation are sunflower oil producers Bunge Romania, Expur, Prutul, Ardealul, butter producers Albalact, Covalact, Dorna Lactate, Friesland Romania, Lacto Food, Olympus Romania, and sugar producers Agrana Romania, Pfeifer & Langen Romania, and Luxor Impex.