Former Roche Executive Convicted and Fined for International Conspiracies under the Competition Act

OTTAWA, October 27, 1999 — The Competition Bureau announced today that Mr. Andreas Hauri, a Swiss national and former Head of Global Marketing for the Vitamins and Fine Chemicals Division of the Swiss company F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, was convicted and fined a total of $250,000 for his part in two international cartels to fix prices and allocate markets in the bulk vitamins and citric acid industries.

From 1990 until mid 1994, Mr. Hauri conducted conversations and met with senior executives of other multi-national vitamin producing companies, including BASF, Rhône- Poulenc and a number of other Japanese and European companies. The parties entered into illegal agreements to fix prices and allocate sales volumes for numerous bulk vitamins and related products. These products are widely used in food, animal feed and pharmaceutical products. Mr Hauri was fined $175,000 for his role in the bulk vitamins cartel.

Between 1991 and mid-1994, Mr. Hauri also took part in an international conspiracy to fix prices and sales volumes for citric acid, an additive found in a wide range of products including foods, beverages and detergents. During the relevant period there were no Canadian producers of citric acid and all supplies to the Canadian market were imported from a small number of foreign producers. The majority of these imports were directly affected by the conspiracy. Mr Hauri was fined $75,000 for his role in the conspiracy on citric acid.

"It is the Bureau's policy to pursue executives who engage in anticompetitive activities that affect the Canadian market," said Konrad von Finckenstein, Q.C., Commissioner of Competition. "It does not matter whether these individuals are Canadian citizens or foreign nationals, residents or non-residents in Canada, we will go after them to the full extent of the law."

Last month, major vitamin producers were convicted and fined a total of $84.5 million for their role in these offences, including Mr. Hauri's former employer, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, which was sentenced to a fine of $48 million for its involvement in the international vitamin cartel and $2.9 million for its role in the citric acid cartel. Also, earlier this week, Mr. Hauri's former supervisor, Dr. Roland Brönnimann was convicted and fined $250,000 for his participation in the bulk vitamins cartel.

Copies of the documents filed before the Superior Court of Ontario in Toronto will be made available here:

Agreed Statement of Facts (PDF: 327 KB)
Indictment (PDF: 48 KB)

Certified copies of the filed documents may be obtained from the Court Registry - (Court File number F888/99)

For further information, please contact:

Cynthia Grant
819-994-0349