Publicans told to halt price freeze

PUBLICANS in 5,500 establishments throughout the country have been told to call time on a co-ordinated price freeze.

Yesterday, the two main bodies representing publicans – the Licensed Vintners’ Association and the Vintners’ Federation of Ireland – announced the end of the freeze which was found by the High Court to be illegal.

In a case brought by the Competition Authority, the court found that the actions of the LVA and the VFI were in breach of the settlement reached in previous hearings over alleged price-fixing in the 1990s.