Israel’s Antitrust Authority has been investigating Tnuva and concluded the dairy conglomerate is guilty of price fixing, slapping a 25 million shekel fine on the company, which is now partially owned by China. In addition, two senior company executives were fines personally, 75,000 each.

Tnuva, which dominates the Israeli dairy market, prohibited supermarkets from selling other dairy good for less than their comparable Tnuva product or face a Tnuva boycott. The Antitrust Authority gathered sufficient evidence to announce the clandestine investigation and fine those responsible.

In a recent and related story, there has been somewhat of a product war with some products from the Tara Dairy as the latter is slowly moving over to the hashgacha of Badatz Eida Chareidis, making those products more desirable in chareidi areas. Tara has begun significantly undercutting Tnuva prices to gain a market share among chareidim, selling in most stores for less than their Tnuva-comparable item.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)