China issues record anti-trust fines to baby formula firms

Beijing: China has issued record fines of 670 million yuan ($108 million) to six baby formula companies following an anti-trust probe, the country`s top economic planner announced Wednesday.

The six companies are Biostime, Mead Johnson, Dumex, Abbott, Friesland and Fonterra, said the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), reported Xinhua. Biostime was fined 163 million yuan, or six percent of its sales revenue in 2012, as it "seriously violated the anti-monopoly law and failed to actively take corrective action", said Xu Kunlin, chief of the price department of the NDRC. Mead Johnson was fined 204 million yuan, or four percent of its revenue last year, because it "did not actively cooperate with the investigation but did take active self-rectification measures". Dumex, Abbott, Friesland and Fonterra each received a fine equal to three percent of their 2012 revenue. They were fined 172 million yuan, 77 million yuan, 48 million yuan and 4 million yuan, respectively. IANS