Visy Board's fines for the collusion case with Amcor have reached almost $40 million.

New Zealand's High Court has fined Visy NZ$3.6 million ($3.1 million) for price-fixing – six years after the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission imposed a $36 million penalty.

The High Court ordered Visy to pay $50,000 towards the Commerce Commission's legal costs. A former Visy senior executive, John Carroll, was also fined NZ$25,000, after previously being slugged $500,000 by the Federal Court of Australia.

Amcor received immunity from the Australian and New Zealand authorities for reporting the cartel behaviour and cooperating with the investigation.

The Commerce Commission said its case against Visy involved tenders it made between 2001 and 2004 for Coca-Cola, Goodman Fielder and Fonterra.

[Related: APP fined $4.2m for price-fixing]

"As part of a pre-trial settlement, Visy admitted liability for its role in illegal arrangements with Amcor, a competitor, to divide certain trans-Tasman corrugated fibreboard packaging customers between them, in breach of the price-fixing prohibition in the Commerce Act," said the Commerce Commission.

"Mr Carroll admitted being knowingly concerned in, or party to, Visy’s conduct in relation to the Fonterra tender for corrugated fibreboard packaging."

Commerce Commission chairman Mark Berry said he was very pleased with the result of the long-running case.

"As the Court of Appeal explained when issuing a ruling on this case last year, 'cartel conduct has a damaging impact upon society'," he said.

"Preventing price-fixing is important to protect New Zealanders from anti-competitive conduct, and the substantial penalty the court awarded should be a deterrent to others who might breach the act."

Visy's NZ$3.6 million fine included a discount for the company's admissions.

[Related: More news about legal disputes]

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