The Federal Cartel Office had fined eight German coffee companies and their various subsidiaries a total of €30 million (US$35 million) for illegal price fixing. 

The agency had said that the companies -- Tchibo, J.J. Darboven, Melitta, Kraft Foods, Seeberger, Westhoff, Lavazza and Segafredo Zanetti, had met between 1997 and 2008 to jointly plan wholesale price increases and cuts among themselves to stifle competition from rivals. 

There had been previous cases of illicit activity in the past leading to the agency fining the companies responsible, with Tchibo  and Melitta, along with another coffee company, found guilty of the repeat offences last December