France's anti-trust authority handed out 93 million euros ($106 million) in fines on Thursday to a dozen firms for engaging in a cartel that hogged the market on ham and cold cuts. "The manufacturers involved... worked in concert in order to purchase cuts of ham from slaughterhouses at lower prices and/or were fixing the price increases for the cold meat products they intended to charge mass-market retailers for their branded products," the Competition Authority said. France's leading maker of ham and cold cuts, the Cooperl cooperative, received the biggest fine at 35.5 million euros. The owner of the Intermarche supermarket chain was also fined 31.7 million. myl/rl/gd