Brussels, 14/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the Commission imposed fines or of over 43 million EUR on industrial yarn producers from Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland and the United Kingdom for having run three cartels: -on the market for yarn for industrial clients in Benelux and the Nordic countries (between 1990 and 2001) ; -for clients involved in the automotive industry within the EEA (between 1998 and 2000); -for industrial clients in the United Kingdom (between 1990 and 1996), for which it was not possible to levy a fine. The illegal practices consist of bilateral contacts repeated in order to agree on price increases or target prices, exchanges of information on price lists, and in order to avoid practising lower prices, amongst other things.
The individual totals of the fines are as follows: Coats Ltd 15.05 million EUR, Amann und Söhne GmbH 13.09 million, Gütermann AG 4.021 million, Barbour Thread Ltd 2.145 million, Belgian sewing thread N.V. 0.979 million, Bieze Stork B.V. 0.514 million, and Zwicky 0.174 million. These are the fines for the cartel on the yarn used in the automotive sector within the EEA: Cousin/Amann 4.888 million EUR, Oxley 1.271 million, Barbour 0.715 million and Coats 0.65 million.