US court fines Chinese vitamin makers for price fixing

A US federal jury on Thursday found two affiliated Chinese vitamin C manufacturers liable for fixing prices, the first Chinese companies to be tried in the US for antitrust violations, The Wall Street Journal reported. The judge ordered the companies to pay US$162 million in damages to plaintiffs including a Texas animal feed company and a New Jersey vitamin distributor. The Chinese companies did not dispute that they had set prices; instead, they argued that their government forced them to coordinate pricing and output. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce filed papers in support of their position, saying that the companies were merely following Chinese industrial policy.