EU court upholds graphite electrode cartel rulings

Showa Denko appealed to the Court to withdraw the deterrence multiplier used by the Commission in setting the high fines against the company. That multiplier is the predecessor to the entry fee included in Wednesday’s new guidelines allowing cartel fines to include up to 25% of company turnover in the fine.

The Court halved to 4% from 8% the extra reduction granted by the Court of First Instance to SGL for having provided more information to the Commission than it was obliged to under the law. The Court agreed on Wednesday with Advocate General Geelhoed that only a minor element of the questions put by the Commission to SGL went beyond what the Commission was entitled to ask and the reduction granted by the CFI should be changed to reflect that.

SGL Carbon said it had been confident that the court would substantially reduce the fine under the principle of double jeopardy, as it had been fined by the US Department of Justice in 1999 in the same case..

"The ECJ, however, did not do this in spite of many strong arguments, and ultimately decided to side with the European Commission," the company said in a statement. "Due to this ruling, the company will now undertake adjustments in its provisions, leading to a negative impact on EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) in the second quarter of €23.5m and on the financial result of €12.7m."