Colombia: Technochemicals slapped with new fine for cheating on payments to the SIC

Pablo Felipe Robledo, in one of his final actions at the head of the Colombian Superintendence of Industry and Commerce, announced a strong sanction aimed at the Tecnoquímicas firm, as well as five of its executives, ordering the payment of 26.7 billion pesos (US$8.9 million) for cheating in the payment of fines imposed for the company’s participation in the infamous ‘diaper cartel’.

Colombian antitrust laws provide that individuals sanctioned by the SIC must pay their fines from their own pocket. The reason: they are the ones who arranged, planned and executed the agreements. However, the SIC argues that Tecnoquímicas executed front operations so that the payments would come out of the company’s coffers.

“Not only did they infringe competition laws with the formation of a business cartel for more than a decade affecting a product of mass consumption… but they also evaded or mocked the sanctioning capacity of the State, executing manoeuvres to hide the payment they illegaly made on behalf of their sanctioned employees,” Robledo explained.

Full Content: El Tiempo