The fragrance and flavor manufacturer Symrise has stated that it is not affected by further antitrust investigations against fragrance companies in the UK.

Symrise is expressly exempt from these further investigations, the company announced on Wednesday. The Group also assumes that the ongoing investigation by the British antitrust authority CMA into Symrise will also remain inconclusive.

The CMA had previously announced that it had opened a further line of investigation in the ongoing antitrust proceedings into illegal agreements in the fragrance industry, which related to the poaching of employees. The investigation has been extended to include Firmenich, Givaudan and IFF. An update on the investigation is expected in the fall.

The world's leading fragrance and flavor manufacturers, including Symrise, were targeted by the competition authorities in March last year. Both the EU antitrust authority and the Swiss Competition Commission (Weko) and the CMA initiated investigations on suspicion of anti-competitive agreements. In addition to Symrise, the two Swiss manufacturers Givaudan and Firmenich as well as IFF from the USA were also affected. Symrise rejected the allegations and lodged an appeal with the General Court of the European Union (EGC) in May.

(Report by Patricia Weiß, edited by Ralf Banser. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)