Italy Raids Pasta Makers in Price-Fixing Probe

Companies accused of colluding to drive prices up 36%
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 16, 2009 11:57 AM CST
Italy Raids Pasta Makers in Price-Fixing Probe
A man holds his plastic bag near packs of pasta as consumer group activists stage a one-day pasta strike in Rome, Thursday, Sept. 13, 2007.   (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Financial police have searched the offices of Italy’s top five pasta makers to investigate claims that they’ve rigged the price of rigatoni—and you know, other pasta, too (rigatoni was just alliterative). The investigation has been ongoing since 2007, after consumer groups complained that prices were up as much as 36%—and recommended that Italians boycott the stuff. Earlier this year, 26 firms were fined, though pasta makers are appealing, and maintain they never formed the alleged cartel. (More Italy stories.)

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