The European Commission decided, on Tuesday 29 November, to fine Sunpor, Synbra, Synthomer, Synthos and Trinseo €157 million for participating in a cartel concerning purchases on the styrene monomer merchant market.
INEOS escaped any financial penalty because it revealed the cartel to the Commission. All six companies admitted their involvement in the cartel and agreed to settle the case.
The product concerned by the cartel is styrene monomer (‘styrene’), which is an intermediate chemical product that serves as a key input for many other chemicals, such as plastics, resins, rubbers and latexes. The six buyers of styrene exchanged sensitive commercial information and coordinated their negotiation strategy on an industry reference price of styrene (the Styrene Monthly Contract Price or ‘SMCP’). The SMCP was widely used as a reference price in the industry and often formed part of the pricing formula in styrene supply agreements.
The six companies colluded to lower an element of the price of styrene. In particular, the companies coordinated their price negotiation strategies prior to and during bilateral SMCP ‘settlement’ negotiations with styrene sellers to ‘fix’ the SMCP, with the aim of influencing it to their advantage. They also exchanged price-related information prior to and during their negotiations with styrene sellers. These are practices prohibited by EU competition rules.
The Commission’s investigation revealed the existence of a single and continuous infringement in the European Economic Area from 1 May 2012 to 30 June 2018.
Sunpor, Synthomer, Synthos and Trinseo benefited from a reduction in their fines for cooperating with the Commission’s investigation.
More info: https://aeur.eu/f/4c5 (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)