Bleach makers not whiter than white

The

has fined nine companies a total of over €388 million for operating a cartel on bleaching chemicals.

The Commission found that the companies participated in cartels in the hydrogen peroxide (HP) and perborate (PBS) markets in clear violation of EC Treaty rules against restrictive business practices (Article 81).

Seven of these companies (Akzo Nobel, Edison, FMC/Foret, Kemira, Snia, Solvay and Total/Elf Aquitaine/Arkema) were fined a total of €388.128 million. Arkema, Solvay and Edison had their fines increased, as they were repeat offenders. Degussa, also a repeat offender, would have been fined if it had not received full immunity for providing information about the cartel. L’Air Liquide is subject to the prohibition decision, but the Commission’s right to impose fines has expired as the company left the market in 1998. The nine companies exchanged commercially important and confidential information, limited production, allocated market shares and customers and fixed and monitored target prices of HP and PBS in the European Economic Area (EEA) between 1994 and 2000.