Posted on: Thursday, May 24, 2001
State to get $1 million in vitamin lawsuits
By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer
Hawai'i will receive about $1 million under a $107 million settlement in an antitrust case against six vitamin manufacturing companies accused of orchestrating an international price-fixing scheme, the attorney general's office announced yesterday.
Hawai'i joined 20 other states in lawsuits against three European and three Japanese companies accused of conspiring to suppress competition by fixing the price and allocating the markets and sales volumes of vitamin products .
Named as defendants were Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., BASF Corp., Aventis Animal Nutrition S.A (formerly known as Rhone-Poulenc), Takeda Chemical Industries Lt., Eisai Co. Ltd, and Daiichi Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.
Together, the companies control more than 60 percent of the world vitamin market and 80 percent of the vitamin markets for animal nutrition, according to a complaint filed by the state attorney general's office yesterday.
The complaint was filed in state Circuit Court to implement the terms of the $107 million settlement, said Attorney General Earl Anzai. Under the agreement, the companies will pay Hawai'i, 20 other states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
The money will be used for programs that benefit and improve the health or nutrition of consumers, or advance nutritional or agricultural science, Anzai said.
"The vitamin cartel caused economic damage to consumers in Hawai'i and elsewhere in the United States," he said. "These companies met in secret, in numerous places around the world, for more than a decade."
The conspiracy began in 1989, the state's complaint alleges, when the companies agreed on prices they would charge for vitamins and the volume each firm would sell. The companies also were accused of offering hush money to people who knew about the conspiracy.
The U.S. Justice Department brought criminal charges against the firms. Hoffmann-La Roche, a Swiss pharmaceutical, BASF, a German company, and Daiichi, Takeda and Eisai, all Japan-based companies, pleaded guilty to criminal antitrust charges, the complaint said.
Aventis Animal Nutrition, a French company, avoided prosecution and supplied the Justice Department with information on the conspiracy, the lawsuit stated. As part of the settlement, the companies will pay another $107 million to businesses that were overcharged as a result of the conspiracy. It was not known if any Hawai'i businesses were involved.
