Former Roche Executive Convicted and Fined For International Conspiracies Under the Competition Act

OTTAWA, October 25, 1999 — The Competition Bureau announced today that Dr. Roland Brönnimann, a Swiss national and former President of the Vitamins and Fine Chemicals Division of the Swiss company F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, was convicted and fined $250,000 for his part in an international cartel in the bulk vitamins industry. Dr. Brönnimann was also a member of the Roche Executive Committee.

From 1990 until early 1998, Dr. Brönnimann conducted, or had knowledge of and approved, conversations and meetings with other vitamin producing companies for the purpose of entering into illegal agreements to fix prices and allocate sales of various bulk vitamins and related products. These products are widely used in food, animal feed and pharmaceutical products.

"This conviction sends a clear message that foreign nationals, non-resident in Canada, who engage in illegal activity that affects Canadian consumers will be held liable for anticompetitive offences," said Konrad von Finckenstein, Q.C., Commissioner of Competition. "It is the Bureau's policy to pursue prosecutions of the most senior culpable executives involved in price fixing or market allocation cartels."

Last month, major vitamin producers were convicted and fined a total of $84.5 million for their role in these offences. In particular, Dr. Brönnimann's former employer, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, was sentenced to a fine of $50.9 million for its involvement in the international vitamin cartel and the citric acid conspiracy.

Copies of the documents filed before the Superior Court of Ontario, in Ottawa are available here:

Agreed Statement of Facts (PDF: 216 KB)

Certified copies of the filed documents may be obtained from the Court Registry - (Court File number 99 311 05)

For more information, please contact:

Cynthia Grant
819-994-0349