AMSTERDAM (AP) The European Commission's top competition regulator has unveiled a settlement with five envelope-makers, fining them a total of 19.4 million euros ($24 million) for forming a cartel.
Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said Thursday the fines levied against Sweden's Bong, France's GPV and Hamelin, Germany's Mayer-Kuvert and Spain's Tompla would benefit consumers, including "everyone who is writing Christmas cards."
She may have meant cards of Christmases past: the cartel existed from 2003-2008. Vestager said the companies fixed prices at meetings they sometimes referred to as playing "mini-golf."
Vestager addressed other companies tempted to join a cartel, saying a single tip could launch an investigation, as happened to the envelope cartel.
In that case, the whistleblower didn't send an anonymous letter: "They were too expensive," she quipped.
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European Union licks envelope cartel
Listen The future of the European Union 0sec J. Brian Atwood: Professor and chair of global policy at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs Tom Nuttall: Columnist for The Economist in Brussels
There's a lot of bad news about the future of the European Union: economies still reeling from the recession, rising nationalism, what some think is an unwieldy bureaucracy in Brussels. But what does the future of the EU actually look like?
As the European Council prepares to meet in Brussels next week, we look at the sustainability of the EU.
In Forbes, Robert Kaplan argued he doesn't "believe that the European Union is merely a phase in history:"
J. Brian Atwood, professor and chair of global policy at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs, joins The Daily Circuit to discuss the latest.
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What does the European Union's future look like?
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