Japan's antitrust regulator raids six ice cream makers over price-fixing
Japan’s Fair Trade Commission conducted on-site inspections on Tuesday at six ice cream and confectionery makers — Meiji, Morinaga Milk Industry, Lotte, Morinaga & Co., Ezaki Glico and Akagi Nyugyo — over allegations they formed a price-fixing cartel.
The companies are suspected of coordinating increases to suggested retail prices in increments of ¥10, based on information exchanged among executives going back several years. Since roughly 2022, the firms have raised prices each year at around the same time, a pattern the regulator is examining as a possible breach of the antimonopoly law.
The FTC said it will analyze seized materials and interview those involved. Repeated, synchronized price moves across competitors are a classic trigger for cartel investigations; if the regulator concludes the increases were coordinated rather than independent responses to rising input costs, the companies could face cease-and-desist orders and surcharge penalties.