Japan raids 6 ice cream makers in suspected price-fixing cartel
What's new: Regulators are probing whether annual hikes since 2022 outpaced raw-material costs as sales topped 660 billion yen.
Japan's antitrust watchdog searched six major ice cream companies this week over suspicions they coordinated price increases for years, targeting Meiji, Morinaga Milk Industry, Lotte, Ezaki Glico, Morinaga & Co, and Akagi Nyugyo. The Japan Fair Trade Commission is examining whether the companies aligned the timing and size of annual retail price hikes since around 2022 and pushed prices beyond what rising ingredient costs justified. The probe comes after Japan logged record ice cream sales of more than 660 billion yen in the fiscal year ended in March, helped by extreme summer heat. Several companies said they would cooperate with the investigation.