Anatomy of a Price-Fix

On February 19, 1982, the three largest retail food chains in the Cleveland area were fined $4.2 million by a federal court for criminal price-fixing, after entering pleas of no contest to the charges against them. Four supermarket executives were given three-year suspended sentences and fined $200,000 each for their participation in the price conspiracy. In related civil actions, the federal court accepted a $20-million coupon repayment plan from the local food stores, payable to the approximately one million households that the retailers serve. This is the largest consumer settlement in U.S. history.