Canada Bread fined $38 million for fixing wholesale bread prices

(Reuters) - Canada's Competition Bureau said on Wednesday Canada Bread Co Ltd was fined C$50 million ($37.99 million), after it pleaded guilty for its role in a price-fixing arrangement that raised the wholesale price of fresh commercial bread.

The company pleaded guilty to four counts of price-fixing under the Competition Act and admitted to have arranged with its competitor, Weston Foods (Canada), to raise prices for various bagged and sliced bread products, including sandwich bread, hot dog buns and rolls, the Bureau said.

At the time of the price-fixing, the bread producer and distributor was under the ownership of Canadian packaged meat company Maple Leaf Foods, and it resulted in two price increases - in 2007 and 2011.

Canada Bread is now under the ownership of Mexican-based bakery organization Grupo Bimbo, which acquired it in 2014.

The Bureau said the penalty imposed by the Ontario Superior Court was the highest price-fixing fine ordered by a Canadian court to date.

Price-fixing is when two or more competing businesses agree to set the same prices for goods or services.

($1 = 1.3160 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Granth Vanaik in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)