On Thursday 30 November, the European Commission announced that it had communicated its objections to car starter battery manufacturers Banner, Clarios (formerly JC Autobatterie), Exide, FET (and its predecessor Elettra) and Rombat, as well as to trade association Eurobat and its service provider Kellen. The European Commission has a preliminary suspicion that these companies engaged in a cartel, between 2004 and 2017, aimed at artificially raising the prices of starter batteries sold to car manufacturers in the European Economic Area.
According to the provisional conclusions of the Commission’s investigation, the companies concerned created, published and agreed to use new indices in their price negotiations with car manufacturers (also known as the Eurobat Premium System) in order to jointly fix a significant element of the final price of batteries.
The Commission is also concerned that Eurobat and Kellen were aware of the alleged conduct and actively contributed to it.
The parties may now exercise their rights of defence.
If confirmed, the cartel would constitute an infringement of Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and Article 53 of the Agreement on the European Economic Area, punishable by a fine.
Consequently, if the investigation confirms these allegations, the Commission may adopt a decision prohibiting the conduct in question and imposing a fine of up to 10% of the worldwide annual turnover of each company concerned. (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)