Shanghai Daily: Business - shanghaidaily.com
NEWLY-RELEASED court documents allege that the Canadian divisions of Nestle, Mars, Hershey and others teamed up in a price-fixing scheme in the multi-billion-dollar Canadian chocolate bar market. Court documents in the case, unsealed by an Ottawa judge on Friday, allege that senior executives at Hershey Canada Inc, Mars Canada Inc and Nestle Canada Inc met secretly in coffee shops, restaurants and at industry conventions to set prices. The allegations are contained in two search warrants granted last month to Canada's federal Competition Bureau as part of an investigation into the chocolate industry. The warrants authorized officials to seize thousands of corporate documents and computer files from Hershey, Mars, Nestle and ITWAL Ltd, a major food distributor. No charges have been filed. The documents allege the chief executive of Nestle Canada handed envelopes stuffed with pricing information to a competitor, instructing the person not to be seen picking up the material in his