European Commission Seeks To Stamp Out Envelope Cartel With Fines Totaling 19.48 Million Euros
A View from Constantine Cannon’s London Office
By Ana Rojo Prada and Richard Pike
The European Commission has announced that it has imposed fines totaling 19.48 million euros on five European envelope producers for coordinating prices and allocating customers through an anticompetitive cartel.
The Commission imposed fines on the five companies – Bong (of Sweden), GPV and Hamelin (both of France), Mayer-Kuvert (of Germany) and Tompla (of Spain) – after they agreed to a settlement that required them to acknowledge their participation in the envelope cartel and their liability for violating European Union antitrust rules.
The Commission found that from October 2003 to April 2008 the cartel allocated customers and coordinated prices for standard/catalogue and special printed envelopes. The companies’ high-level executives met at multilateral and bilateral meetings at which they arranged for their companies to exchange commercially sensitive information and to coordinate prices that they offered to major European customers.
Categories: Antitrust Enforcement, International Competition Issues
