China fines 8 shippers on price-fixing charges
BEIJING: Chinese regulators have fined eight major Korean, Japanese and European shipping companies on price-fixing charges, expanding anti-monopoly enforcement that has hit the auto, technology and dairy industries.
The Cabinet's planning agency said Monday that its investigators found managers of the shippers, which included South Korea's EUKOR and Europe's Wallenius Wilhelmsen, improperly coordinated bids and routes.
The companies were fined a total of 407 million yuan ($65 million).
Other foreign companies also have been investigated or fined under China's 2008 anti-monopoly law in what appears to be an effort by Beijing to force down prices.
