Perfume News

IFF, Firmenich, Givaudan and Symrise under investigation by Swiss Competition Commission

Posted on 9 March 20233 August 2023 by Grant Osborne

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Swiss antitrust authorities are investigating four major fragrance companies for suspected collusion. The quartet includes Switzerland’s Firmenich and Givaudan, US-based International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF), and Germany’s Symrise. The four companies between them are responsible for around half of all fragrances on the market.

The Swiss Competition Commission (COMCO) has indicated that there are concerns about several companies in the fragrance production sector violating cartel laws. There are indications that these companies may have collaborated on pricing policies, restricted the supply of certain customers to their competitors, and limited the production of certain fragrances.

To investigate the matter, COMCO conducted dawn raids at various locations, and worked in consultation with the European Commission, the US Department of Justice Antitrust Division, and the UK Competition and Markets Authority.

All four companies are said to be co-operating fully with the investigation.

About the Author

• 
  Grant Osborne

  Grant Osborne lives by the sea, and is the founder and editor of Basenotes.

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Comments

Showing 9 thoughts on IFF, Firmenich, Givaudan and Symrise under investigation by Swiss Competition Commission

1. This seems to be a serious event. Good for the Swiss authorities for looking into this.

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3. Based on sampling modern perfumes, I can get the impression that the behind-the-scenes companies like these may have lost their way. The story seems to click into place alongside those experiences and make perfect sense.

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5. It's going to be very interesting how this pans out. I hope for the better.

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7. Wouldn't it be grand if this results in some more reasonable pricing?!

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9. Perhaps these investigations should be extended to the damn IFRA, which is also based in Switzerland. Their supposedly bad recommendations would certainly coincide with the four mentioned, who are all full members of IFRA.

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11. Boo-Yah!

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13. I'm all for oligopoly busting.

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15. Good. I do hope IFRA will be looked into as well.

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17. I'm not accepting this at face value, personally. Perhaps I'm jaded by the American judicial shakedown model, which oddly grooms politically compliant monopolies in the name of fighting them, while extracting fines and political promises, but I suspect this is pretext for something else.
    
    Or maybe Switzerland is above all that. ;)

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