The European Commission decided on Tuesday 12 July to fine Crown and Silgan €31.5 million for their participation in a cartel concerning metal boxes, cans and closures in Germany.
Both companies acknowledged their involvement in the cartel and agreed to settle the case.
Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President responsible for competition policy, explained: “We fine today Crown and Silgan for illegally exchanging sensitive business information and coordinating their commercial strategies at a time when the industry has been transitioning towards less harmful metal cans and closures”.
The products concerned by the cartel are metal closures (‘lids’) used to close glass jars or jars containing foodstuffs (jam, vegetables, fruit, meat or fish) as well as metal cans and boxes, also known as ‘containers’, used to package, transport and store sterilised food and beverages (vegetables, fruit, meat, fish, juice).
The Commission’s investigation revealed the existence of one infringement consisting of two parts:
- regular exchanges of detailed data between Crown and Silgan on their most recent annual sales volumes of metal closures to each of their customers in Germany. This high level of transparency gave each company a solid basis for its future business strategy regarding a large number of German customers;
- coordination between Crown and Silgan to charge a higher price and apply shorter minimum durability recommendations for metal cans, tins and closures coated with BPA-free lacquers. The parties kept each other informed of their commercial strategies, which enabled them to adjust their behaviour and competitive efforts on the markets for cans and closures coated with BPA-free lacquers in Germany.
The Commission’s investigation revealed a single and continuous infringement that ran from 1 March 2011 to 18 September 2014. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)