Ireland's Competition Authority tonight welcomed the EU fines against corporate giants for cranking up the prices of over-the-counter vitamins were welcomed tonight as a victory for consumers.
The EU Commission has imposed a record fine of £673m on vitamin producers, including BASF and Roche, found guilty of operating a price cartel.
The biggest fine was handed out to the Swiss company Hoffmann-La Roche which was fined nearly £280 million - by far the largest individual penalty out of a total of more than £500 million levied against eight firms involved.
Roche employs 250 people at a plant outside Ennis and a further 100 in a sales and marketing operation in Dublin.
Competition Authority Chairman Mr John Fingleton said the authority played an active role at EU level before the fines were imposed.
Mr Fingleton said: "The fines reflect the seriousness, scale, duration, and, above all, the loss to consumers resulting from this cartel theft.
"They are a proportionate response to an orchestrated and deliberate strategy to defraud consumers. The fact that the fines will go into the Commission's budget means that consumers will indirectly recoup at least some of the monies they lost through this cartel theft."
PA