Brussels, 31/08/2007 (Agence Europe) - The Belgian Wine and Spirits Federation (FBVS) has sent a letter to the European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes complaining about the shortage of glass bottles and jars on the market and the sharp increase in prices charged for empty glass bottles and jars. It puts the increase down to restructuring and mergers and acquisitions in the glass industry in recent years. The FBVS is calling for urgent intervention from the Commission. On Thursday, Kroes' spokesperson Jonathan Todd confirmed that the Commissioner had received the letter on 28 August and would be sending it to the DG competition department, which would closely examine it. For several months, wine beer and mustard manufacturers have been having huge problems locating glass bottles and jars and the FBVS reports price hikes of between 5% and 30%. the number of bottle and jar manufacturers on the European market has rapidly slumped in recent years from sixty to only three, and the FBVS suspects the big three (O-I Manufacturing, Saint-Gobain and Ardagh Glass, which account for 95% of the market) of agreeing to cerate a shortage in order to increase prices. In his letter to Commissioner Kroes, the FBVS Secretary General, Jean-Jacques Delhaye, explains that the shortage is structural or, worse still, it may be intentionally structured by the three glass manufacturers themselves to be able to generate extra profits. If this were true, it would be abuse of a dominant position. The European Federation of Wine and Spirit Importers and Distributors (EFWSID), of which Jean-Jacques Delhaye is the Director, also sent a similar letter to the Commission on 29 August 2007. (ol)