Brussels, 27/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - There may be further changes in the fines levied on the 'bathroom cartel'. On Thursday 26 November, one of the European Court of Justice's advocate generals suggested that a number of European General Court rulings should remain in place, but others should be cancelled.
Several bathroom manufacturers were found guilty by the European Commission in June 2010 and fined a total of more than €622 million. In 2013, the fines were reduced for some participants in the cartel by the European General Court (see EUROPE 10923). The General Court's rulings were challenged at the European Court of Justice by some manufacturers and also by the European Commission in casesC-609/13 P, C-613/13 P, C-625/13 P, C-636/13 P and C-644/13 P.
In conclusions submitted to the Court of Justice on Thursday 26 November, Advocate General Melchior Wathelet suggests that the General Court rulings be maintained for the cases Duravit and Villeroy & Boch, while the ruling for Keramag be cancelled as the General Court committed a number of errors of law leading it to wrongly conclude that Allia and Produits Céramiques de Touraine were not part of the cartel. The fines initially levied on the two manufacturers should therefore be restored, taking the total fine on the cartel members to €57.69 million again.
The General Court ruling in the Roca Sanitario case should be cancelled, said the judge, because the General Court had not taken into account the fact that Roca Sanitario had a far less active a role in the cartel than the other companies (the subsidiaries of Roca Sanitario only took part in the cartel in their country of registration, viz Austria and France). The judge also suggested that the General court should re-examine the case in order to scale down the fine levied on Roca Sanitario. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)