Canadians buy over $4 billion of bread and baked goods every year — which meant that when Loblaw Companies Ltd. confessed to conspiring with competitors to keep prices high, consumers were angry.
The Canadian bread price-fixing scandal first made headlines in 2017 when the Competition Bureau launched an investigation targeting retailers alleged to have conspired with Loblaw — including Walmart Canada, Sobeys, Metro and Giant Tiger stores — to raise bread prices across Canada in a co-ordinated manner and block sales that offered consumers lower prices. The practice, according to some sources, cost a typical family about $400 over 14 years.
Loblaw, parent of Weston Bakeries, secured immunity from prosecution in the investigation by naming its alleged conspirators and co-operating with the Competition Bureau’s investigation.
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