Mondelez, the maker of Oreo and Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate, has been fined €337.5 million ($366 million) for hindering the trade of chocolate, cookies and coffee between European Union countries.
“In today’s decision, we find that that Mondelez illegally limited cross-border sales across the EU. Mondelez did so to maintain higher prices for its products to the detriment of consumers,” Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition chief, said in a statement Thursday.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, found that Mondelez International (MDLZ) deliberately restricted the cross-border trade, as well as “abusing its dominant position” in some national markets for the sale of chocolate bars.
Among other things, the company had ceased supplying chocolate bars in the Netherlands to prevent them from being imported into Belgium, where Mondelez was selling the same products at higher prices, the Commission said in the statement.
“The Commission concluded that Mondelez’s illegal practices prevented retailers from being able to freely source products in (EU) member states with lower prices,” it added.
CNN has contacted Mondelez for comment.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
