A Very Large Cartel Fine
The EC fined four companies 1.3 billion euros ($1.66 billion) for price fixing. Reuters (via the Washington Post) reports:
The EU’s antitrust chief on Wednesday fined car glass producers Asahi, Pilkington, Saint-Gobain and Soliver more than 1.3 billion euros ($1.66 billion) for price-fixing, the largest sum ever levied by the EU for a cartel.France’s Compagnie de Saint-Gobain SA must pay 896 million euros ($1.14 billion) - more than any other company has been fined before.
The European Commission said the four companies control 90 percent of the glass used to make European cars, a market worth 2 billion euros in 2003.
EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said the companies fixed prices over a period of five years. She said the fines were high because European industry had to “learn the lessons the hard way.”
…
The EU said it increased Saint-Gobain’s fine by 60 percent because the company was a cartel repeat offender. It was fined last year for an EU-wide window glass cartel, following earlier fines for a Belgian flat glass cartel in 1988 and a similar cartel on the Italian market in 1984.
The statement of Neelie Kroes can be found here.
RSS Feed
