Chinese regulators broke down international shipment empires by recently imposing a $65 million penalty to seven major international shipping companies on Monday as part of promoting the country's anti-competition campaign.

News broke recently that China imposed a staggering $65 million fine to seven international shipping companies that carry vehicles for automakers including Japan's Mitsui OSK Lines, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha and Eastern Car Liner, South Korea's EUKOR Car Carriers, Norway's Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics, and Chile's Cia. Sud Americana de Vapores.

BBC reports that after one year, investigators found the companies violating China's 2008 anti-monopoly law. The law was made in an attempt to keep prices down for Chinese consumers. However, what the seven major shipping companies did were collude with each other to keep prices high.

According to the Associated Press, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) revealed that representatives of the companies apparently met for more than four years to share information and make deals to avoid competition.

Furthermore, the collusion covered routes linking China to Europe, North America and Latin America, involving multiple auto brands. However, the publication revealed that the secretive and abrupt way of conducting the investigation was aimed to alienate foreign companies, but the regulators denied the claims.

The largest fine of $45 million was imposed on EUKOR Car Carriers Inc. The company released a statement on its website saying, "We will do everything possible to avoid similar situations going forward."

Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics, a Swedish-Norwegian company, was fined $7.1 million, according to the NDRC. Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. was fined $6 million. Other companies that were fined included Line and Eastern Car Liner Ltd. as well as Chile's CSAV and CCNI. However, Japan's Nippon Yusen was spared from paying a fine.

BBC reported that Japan's NYK was exempted because of its full cooperation with the investigators during the one-year process. Meanwhile, back in February of this year, China practiced its authority over U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm, which was penalized with $975 million because of charges that it abused its dominance in wireless technology and its high licensing fees.

There are no official statements from the other involved companies as of the moment. Meanwhile, the news outlet revealed further that besides automakers, several sectors were also affected by the restriction such as dairy and technology suppliers.