Cincinnati Packaged-Ice Manufacturer Sentenced to Pay $9 Million for Its Role in a Customer and Territory Allocation Conspiracy

WASHINGTON—A Cincinnati packaged-ice manufacturer was sentenced today to pay a $9 million criminal fine for its participation in a conspiracy to allocate packaged-ice customers and territories, the Department of Justice announced today.

The Home City Ice Company pleaded guilty on June 17, 2008, to a one-count charge of conspiring to suppress and eliminate competition by allocating packaged-ice customers and territories in the Detroit metropolitan area and southeastern Michigan. The conspiracy began at least as early as Jan. 1, 2001, and continued until on or about July 17, 2007.

Packaged ice is marketed as high-grade ice for consumption and is sold in varying size bags and blocks. Home City Ice is a manufacturer of packaged ice with multiple locations throughout the United States.

Today’s sentencing is a result of an ongoing investigation by the Antitrust Division’s Cleveland Field Office and FBI offices in Ann Arbor, Mich.; Indianapolis; Toledo, Ohio; and Cincinnati. As a part of the same investigation, Arctic Glacier International Inc., a packaged-ice company headquartered in St. Paul, Minn., and three of its former executives pleaded guilty in October 2009 to allocating customers in the Detroit metropolitan area and southeastern Michigan. On Feb. 11, 2010, Arctic Glacier was sentenced to pay a $9 million criminal fine.

Anyone with information concerning customer or territorial allocation agreements, or other anticompetitive conduct in the packaged-ice industry, should contact the Antitrust Division’s Cleveland Field Office at 216-687-8400 or visit http://www.justice.gov/atr/contact/newcase.htm.