EU appeals court upholds Dutch gas cartel fine

04 July 2006 18:29  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--The European Court of First Instance upheld on Tuesday the €12.6m ($16.1m) fine levied by the European Commission against supplier Hoek Loos for its part in a Dutch industrial gases cartel.

 

On 24 July 2002, Hoek Loos was one of seven producers fined a total of €25.72m by the Commission for participating in a secret cartel in the Netherlands between September 1993 and December 1997.

 

Hoek Loos and Westfalen Gassen Nederland were the only two companies to challenge the Commission's decision before the European Court of First Instance.

 

The Commission rejected Hoek Loos’s request for the decision to be annulled and also threw out its alternative argument that the fine imposed was inequitable and unreasonable.

 

The cartel involved agreements to fix the price of products including oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, argon and acetylene supplied in cylinder and liquid (bulk) form.

By: Mark Watts
+44 20 8652 3214

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