Court quashes Degussa's appeal against €91m fine

22 May 2008 14:49  [Source: ICIS news]

PARIS (ICIS news)--The European Court of Justice (ECJ) on Thursday quashed an appeal against a €91m ($143.3m) fine imposed on Degussa by the European Commission (EC) for price fixing.

The EU competition regulators in 2002 found that German chemical group Degussa had illegally agreed to fix the price of methionine – a chemical used widely in animal feed – with Japan’s Nippon Soda Co, which was fined €9m.

Aventis, the third company involved in the cartel, was not fined because it revealed the existence of the price-fixing agreement to the EC.

The original fine set by the EC was €118m, but this was reduced in 2006 following an earlier appeal by Degussa. At the time, the Court of First Instance, Europe’s main appeals court, ruled that the EC had incorrectly applied the rules on the setting of fines.  

Degussa, which was bought by compatriot Evonik in 2007, appealed a second time against the reduced fine, claiming that it was still "exorbitant" and that the EC had incorrectly assessed the level of sanctions applicable in the cartel case.

But the ECJ, the highest European Union (EU) court, rejected this claim, saying that the legal basis use by the EC to justify the level of the fine was correct.

The EC sets fines according to the seriousness of the infringement of EU competition rules and the length of time that the infringement went on – in this case, over 12 years.

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By: Chris Jones
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