Cartel

EU Commission fines car glass cartel 1.3 bln euros

The European Commission fined Asahi Glass, Pilkington, Saint-Gobain and Soliver a total of over 1.3 billion euros ($1.64 billion) on Wednesday for a cartel in delivering car glass.

"These are the highest cartel fines the Commission has ever imposed, both for an individual company (Saint-Gobain) and for a cartel as a whole," the European Union executive said in a statement.

In 2005, EU antitrust authorities raided several car glass producers across Europe following a tip-off from "an anonymous informant", the Commission said in a statement.

French company Saint-Gobain was fined 896 million euros, Pilkington -- a UK unit of Japan's Nippon Sheet Glass -- 370 million euros, Belgium's Soliver 4.396 million euros and Asahi 113.5 million euros.

"The Commission increased the fines for Saint-Gobain by 60 percent because it was a repeat offender," the Commission said.

"Asahi cooperated fully with the Commission and provided additional information to help to expose the infringement and its fine was reduced by 50 percent."

Asahi's fine concerned its Belgian-based AGC Flat Glass unit. Soliver was not immediately available for comment.

Saint-Gobain said it would appeal against the fine to the European Court of Justice -- the EU's highest court.

(Published by Reuters - November 12, 2008)