Luxembourg, 27/04/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 26 April, the European Court of First Instance confirmed in substance the Commission's 2001 decision to fine ten companies a total of €313.7 million for involvement in a price-fixing and market-sharing cartel in the carbonless paper market. Only two companies had their fines reduced by the Court. No changes were made to the fines on the other eight companies.
The European Commission welcomed the decision in a press released published on Thursday, describing the companies' behaviour as 'very serous infringement of the competition rules.'
Action was brought to the Court of First Instance against the Commission's decision by Bolloré SA, Arjo Wiggins Appleton Ltd, Mitsubishi HiTec Paper Bielefeld GmbH, Papierfabrik August Koehler AG, M-real Zanders GmbH, Papeteries Mougeot SA, Torraspapel SA, Distribuidora Vizcaína de Papeles SL and Papelera Guipuzcoana de Zicuñaga SA, and was dealt with in combined cases T-109/02 e.a. The main argument put forward was that the duration of the agreement had been overestimated by the Commission, along with its impact on the market in question.
The Court did not recognise the validity of this argument but did rule that two of the fines were excessive for other reasons. The ruling notes that the fine on Zicuñaga did not take account of the fact that the company was not involved in market-sharing and the Court therefore decided to reduce its fine from €1.54 mil to €1.309 mil. The ruling notes that the Commission should have granted Arjo Wiggins a 50% reduction, the same reduction as Mougeot, on account of its cooperation because it provided similar information to the investigation. Arjo Wiggin's fine is therefore reduced by 50% rather than 30% from €184.27 mil to €141.75 mil.
The Court of First Instance confirmed the remainder of the European Commission's decision for a total of €270.9 mil (80% of the original total fine). An eleventh company, Sappi, was granted total immunity because it was the first company to inform the Commission of the cartel (in 1996), later cooperating and providing decisive evidence. (cd)