The
European Commission has confirmed that it has raided ethylene purchasers in a
number of Member States on suspicion of infringing Article 101.
Ethylene
is used to create plastic polyethylene.
The
Commission has not identified the companies that it has raided but US company Celanese
and Swiss company Clariant have confirmed that they are being investigated.
The
investigation is a further example of the Commission’s focus on potential
buy-side cartel activity as opposed to collusion between competing suppliers
over prices, markets, terms and conditions of sale.
In
a similar respect the Commission’s investigation into German car manufacturers
confirmed this week appears to concern buy-side activity in the choice of
suppliers and purchase terms.
Antitrust
investigations on the purchasing side are relatively unusual but not without
precedent. An example is the Commission’s decision of 7 February 2017 finding
that between 2009 and 2012, four recycling companies took part in a cartel to
fix the purchase prices of scrap lead-acid automotive batteries in Belgium,
France, Germany, and the Netherlands.
European
Commission press release: Antitrust: Commission confirms unannounced
inspections in the ethylene purchasing sector, 26 July 2017
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