Nestle is seeking damages from German sugar supplier Suedzucker, who formed part of a group found guilty last year of collusion to fix the price of sugar.
A spokesperson for Nestle's German unit confirmed that the company is looking for a total of EUR50m (US$55.1M) in compensation from Suedzucker.
Nestle filed the suit with a regional court in Mannheim, Germany, where Suedzucker is based. The company refused to be drawn on further details. "We will not comment further on this topic as these are ongoing processes," a spokesperson told just-food.
Suedzucker did not respond to requests for comment.
In February last year, three sugar companies - Suedzucker, Nordzucker and Pfeifer & Langen -were fined a combined EUR280m for anti-competitive practices, including price fixing.
Germany's competition authority, the Bundeskartellamt, said the violations started in the mid-1990s and continued up until the start of its investigation in 2009. The watchdog said the practices focused on sales, quotas and prices. It said the infringements involved the sale of sugar for the processing industry and sugar for the consumer.
Source: www.just-food.com