The European Commission has announced that
it has started a formal probe into alleged manipulation of ethanol benchmarks
contrary to Article 101 TFEU. It named
three companies (Abengoa, Alcogroup and Lantmannen) based in Spain, Belgium and
Sweden as the targets.
The Commission alleges that that the
companies conspired to manipulate the prices that they submitted to the
international price benchmarking agency Platts whose indices are widely used to
price ethanol and ethanol derivatives.
Ethanol is widely used in the production of biofuel used in vehicles.
The Commission believes that the alleged
infringement, if proven, could compromise the EU’s energy market objectives by
inflating prices for renewable energy.
The Commission launched its investigation
in 2013 with dawn raids of some of some of the biggest oil companies. It then extended its investigation to ethanol
with investigations of some ethanol companies in 2014, although it did not
formally confirm the names of the companies involved. The Commission also conducted a further raid
in March 2015, again not stating the target of its investigation other than to
confirm that the company was active in the production, distribution and trading
of ethanol.
In 2013 the Commission proposed a
Regulation on indices used in financial contracts and which it intended would
promote better standards and integrity in financial markets. In announcing the formal stage of the current
investigation, the Commission has stated that the Regulation is approaching the
final stage of adoption by the Council and the Parliament.
The Commission is conducting a separate
investigation into whether producers of bioethanol have colluded to fix prices
or share markets (Case AT.40244 - Bioethanol).
Case
AT.40054 - Oil and Biofuel Markets. Commission press release IP/15/6259.
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