Italy's most popular pasta makers were slapped with a 12.5-million-euro (15.9-million-dollar) fine on February 26 after cooking up higher prices for Italians' favourite food, antitrust authorities said. Twenty-six companies including industry leader Barilla were fined for raising prices by up to 36 percent - an increase that led disgruntled consumer groups to threaten a "pasta strike" in 2007.
The companies "put into place an agreement restricting competition in order to decide together on increasing the prices for the sale of pasta," Italy's antitrust authority alleged in a statement. The cartel lasted between October 2006 and March 2008, the agency said. Italians on average eat 28 kilograms (62 pounds) of pasta a year per capita - by far the highest consumption in the world, according to the Association of Pasta Manufacturers of the European Union.