Swiss consultancy found to be complicit in peroxide cartel

ERJ staff report (DS)

Luxembourg -- Europe's second-highest court has found a Swiss consulting company guilty of complicity in a cartel which fixed the prices of organic peroxides in the European rubber and plastics industry up to 2003.

The company, AC-Treuhand AG was found to have supported the cartel. In the 8 July ruling, the Court of First Instance found that Treuhand, "although not present on the market concerned, none the less contributed to the cartel's implementation."

In December 2003 the Commission adopted a decision1 finding that, from 1971, three producers2 of organic peroxides (chemicals used in the plastics and rubber industry) had implemented a cartel on the European market for those products. One of the aims of that cartel was to preserve the market shares of the producers concerned and to coordinate their price increases.

AC-Treuhand AG brought an action for annulment of the Commission's decision before the Court of First Instance claiming, inter alia, that it could not be held liable since it was not a contracting party to the cartel.

In its decision, the Commission found that AC-Treuhand AG, a consultancy firm, had from 1993 provided those producers with various services and had played an essential role in the cartel by organising meetings and covering up evidence of the infringement. The Commission therefore concluded that that consultancy firm had also infringed the competition rules and imposed a fine on it of EUR 1 000.

According to the evidence gathered by the Commission, between January 1971 and the end of 1999 the main producers of organic peroxides in Europe conspired to raise prices and share out markets for organic peroxides, or double oxygen bond organic chemical products for the production of plastic and rubber. The market is worth around €250 million a year in the European Economic Area.

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Ruling from Court of First Instance July 2008

Original press release from EC December 2003