Top 4 Fragrance Companies under Investigation by Swiss Antitrust Authorities
- Chaileedo Press
- Mar 10, 2023
- 2 min read
The world's four largest fragrance and perfume companies, Firmenich, Givaudan, IFF and Symrise, are recently under antitrust investigation by several official authorities.
According to Financial Times, Swiss companies Firmenich and Givaudan, Germany's Symrise and US group International Flavors & Fragrances together control around 60% of the relevant market share. The four major flavour companies are being investigated for allegedly colluding with antitrust authorities in Switzerland, the UK, the US and the EU. Three of the four companies, including Symrise, Firmnich and IFF, have said they will cooperate fully with the investigation.
On Wednesday, the Swiss Competition Commission (Comco) carried out fly-overs of the companies at various locations after consultation with the European Commission, the US Department of Justice Antitrust Division and the UK Competition and Markets Authority.
“There are suspicions that [the companies] have co-ordinated their pricing policy, prohibited their competitors from supplying certain customers and limited the production of certain fragrances,” Swiss competition regulator Comco said on Wednesday. It added that some indications showed several undertakings active in the production of fragrances have violated cartel law.(A cartel is an organization created between a group of producers of a good or service to regulate supply and manipulate prices.)
According to Cosmetics Business, Comco said “Dawn raids started on Tuesday 7 March 2023. At the sites of Firmenich and Givaudan in Geneva we were looking for evidence which might confirm our suspicions for collusion in the fragrance market.”
Meanwhile, the European Commission also announced on Wednesday that it had conducted raids on companies involved in the perfume industry and an association in several member states to identify whether there was collusion in relation to the supply of flavours and fragrance ingredients, without disclosing the specific companies. Under EU regulations, companies involved in illegal cartel law are subject to fines of up to 10% of their global turnover.
It is worth noting that on 31 May 2022, Firmenich and DSM announced a merger that will bring together a new company, DSM-Firmenich, with total revenues of $3.3 million for the combined fragrance and beauty division. The combined fragrance and beauty division will be a leader among fragrance ingredient companies, the sources said.
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