Bonn - German regulators raided the offices of major coffee
importers on Thursday, making public an inquiry into alleged
collusion to fix the price of Germany's most popular hot beverage.
Silke Kaul, a spokeswoman for the Bonn-based Federal Cartel
Office, did not name the companies but said the list included leading
companies in the coffee-roasting trade. She said the suspicions dated
back to 'at least to 2004.'
Most German coffee is factory-roasted and sold in branded
packaging without the bean variety or nation of origin disclosed.
The two top brands, Hamburg-based Tchibo and Munich-based
Dallmayr, both confirmed they had been visited by the investigators.
The Cartel Office normally does not seek documents at business
offices unless its suspicions have become 'concrete' through
evidence. The federal regulator has never investigated the coffee
trade before. Collusion to fix prices breaches German law.
A spokeswoman for the Alois Dallmayr company said, 'We are
cooperating with the authorities to fully resolve these allegations.'
She did not comment on the substance of the claims, but added that
coffee was 'very cheap' in Germany, with the price practically
unchanged for the past decade.
A Tchibo statement said that company had answered all the
questions from the Office and was fully cooperating with the inquiry.
At home and at work the Germans drink far more coffee than tea,
mainly preferring a diluted form of the beverage which is generally
strained through paper filters in electric coffee-making machines.
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