Way back in August of 2007 we published a long piece about how Hungary’s Competition Office (GVH) had launched an investigation into the domestic bakery business. It’s taken a while, but the cake in question is finally out of the oven: According to various media reports, we see that the GVH has fined 16 different companies in the baking business, as well as the Hungarian Bakers’ Association (Magyar Pékszövetség), a combined Ft 76 million (just under €275,000) for trying to form an illegal cartel by coordinating their price hikes. Now if only they can fine them for conspiring not to make our favorite loaves of peasant-style sourdough rye….
Before all the big national bakery cartels changed everything in the late 1960s, most of the baked goods consumed in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida came out the same oven, so to speak. That oven was the mammoth works of the Marvel Bakery, located on several city blocks absorbed today by the University of Alabama in Birmingham. Hungary’s Competition Office (GVH) on Friday said it fined 16 bakery companies and the Hungarian Bakery Association a combined HUF 76.6 million for cartel activity. The 16 companies were among 23 under investigation by GVH. The office found the 16 had coordinated price rises in August 2006 and February 2007. If you need a little gap funding due to an unforeseen expense, try using a quick cash loan or cash advance.