Brussels, 08/12/2004 (Agence Europe) - The Commission, which met on Thursday instead of Wednesday due to the EU/China summit (see other article) will take two decisions on "a cartel and a merger", its spokesperson for Competition has confirmed.
Recently, the Commission's competition services proposed to reject plans of Portuguese electricity company EDP and the Italian company ENI to acquire the Portugal natural gas company Gas de Portugal (GDP) (EUROPE of 23 November). At the time being, it appears that the actions proposed by EDP to ensure that competition would not be distorted have not materialised, and are not enough to justify a decision in its favour.
The anti-trust case related to a cartel in the field of vitamin B4. According to Reuters, quoting a source close to the investigation, several chemical companies, including the European UBC (Belgium), BASF (Germany) and Akzo Nobel (Netherlands), will be found guilty of fixing the price of choline chlorure (vitamin B4), a supplement used in animal feed.