On Friday 10 December, the European Commission decided to impose a fine of €20 million on the Spanish company Abengoa S.A. and its subsidiary Abengoa Bionenergía S.A. (‘Abengoa’) for participating in a cartel concerning the wholesale price formation mechanism in the European ethanol market.
The port of Rotterdam and the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp barge market are the main trading locations for ethanol in Europe. S&P Global Platts (‘Platts’) takes the trading activity in this area into account when establishing its ethanol benchmarks.
The investigation revealed that Abengoa regularly colluded with other companies to coordinate their trading behaviour before, during and after Platts’ ‘Market on Close (MOC) Window’ (between 4 pm and 4:30 pm London time).
Abengoa’s intention was to artificially increase the levels of Platts’ ethanol benchmarks, maintain them and/or prevent them from decreasing. Abengoa was also limiting ethanol deliveries in the Rotterdam area in order to reduce the volumes available for delivery in the MOC Window.
Abengoa’s ethanol traders had illegal contacts with their counterparts in other companies to coordinate certain ethanol trading activities before, during and after the MOC Window. These practices are prohibited under EU competition rules. The infringement lasted from 6 September 2011 to 16 May 2014. Link: https://bit.ly/3lTEDRD (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)