China had administered fines against Mead Johnson and other infant formula suppliers.Mead Johnson , the  maker of Enfamil has said that the company will pay about 33million US dollars in connection with the price-fixing probe. 

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Fonterra ,New Zealand dairy giant and Danone were also penalized. A total of  US 110 million fines has been resulted as a result of the antitrust review of

The National Development and Reform Commission said that Abbott Laboratories, Dutch dairy cooperative Friesland ampina and Hong Kong-listed Biostime International Holdings were penalized as well.

NDRC announced the fines after a month that they said that they will be conducting the antitrust review.The investigation was simultaneous with the price check up of both local and foreign pharmaceutical firms.The results for these are not final yet.

China's public trust was damaged  by an infant formula scandal last 2008 in which 6 infants died and thousands became ill after drinking milk that contained toxic industrial compound melamine.

Foreign brands account for about half of total sales and can sell for more than double the price of local formula. The infant milk market in the world's second biggest economy is set to grow to $25 billion by 2017.

Foreign milk suppliers can sell milk at a much higher price compared to local infant formula.Experts believe that infant milk industry is set to grow to $25 billion by the year 2017.

The NDRC said in a statement the fines were for restricting competition, setting curbs on minimum prices for distributors and for using a variety of methods to disrupt market order.

The NDRC stated that the penalties were implemented to avoid competition and setting curbs on minimum price.

Analysts are saying that the investigation was done to promote the local infant formula.

The commission penalized Mead Johnson 203.8 million yuan , Fonterra 4 million yuan,Danone 172 million yuan,Abbott 77 million yuan; FrieslandCampina 48 million yuan and Biostime 162.9 million yuan.

Nevertheless,they mentioned that the fines will not damage the prestige of the said companies.

Jacqueline Ko, an analyst at Maybank Kim Eng Research said "It will have an impact on domestic brands over the long term as the prices of high-end premium brands come down. Customers will tend to buy the foreign brands as the price gap between domestic and foreign brands narrows".

Tagsfix price probe