The National Economic Prosecutor’s Office (FNE) filed an injunction before the Court for the Defense of Free Competition (TDLC) against a group of industrial bakers in Iquique and Alto Hospicio, accusing them of entering into a collusive agreement to raise the wholesale price of bread between November 2019 and August 2022.
According to the FNE, the bakers maintained contacts and held face-to-face meetings, promoted by the leaders Samuel Campusano and Marlene Martínez (also requested by the FNE), where they agreed on consecutive price increases, which were then disseminated through local media and social networks.
The investigation was initiated ex officio by the FNE based on press releases in 2020 about announcements of increases in the price of bread, followed by complaints from the National Consumer Service (Sernac) in 2020 and 2022 that warned about generalized increases in the province.
In its injunction, the FNE requested fines of around $65 million in total for those involved, as well as mandatory antitrust training.
