Luxembourg, 07/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - On 7 June, the Court found against Britannia Alloys & Chemicals Ltd in its appeal against the Commission's decision of 11 December 2001 imposing a fine of €3.37 million on the British company for taking part in a cartel in the zinc phosphate market during the 1990s (see EUROPE 8110). The fine, therefore, stands and will have to be paid. Britannia disposed of its assets in 1997, but the legal entity still exists and is held by MIM Holdings Group, which itself belongs to mining multinational Xstrata.
Britannia's main argument was that the fine had been calculated on its 1996 turnover, while the fines on the other members of the cartel had been calculated on their 1997 turnovers. Since, in a legal sense, the company was not involved in any commercial transactions in 1997 (all its assets having been bought by Trident Alloys, a company formed by the Britannia administrators), its turnover for that year was nothing. Britannia put forward the argument that these turnover figures exactly reflected its economic situation for the period in the course of which the infringement was committed, although the established infringement had lasted from 1994 to 1998. The Court was not persuaded and judged that, under these circumstances, the Commission had acted legitimately in using a tax year more representative of the period in question - the 1996 tax year - in calculating the amount of the fine. It agreed with the previous ruling of the Court of First Instance, to which Britannia appealed unsuccessfully on the same fine in 2002 (see EUROPE 9097).
The ruling was not unexpected, said Xstrada spokeswoman, Claire Divver. Following the purchase of Britannia from MIM Holdings in 2003, “we provisioned for a possible fine,” she told EUROPE. (cd)