Bridgestone, Competitors Fined EU131.5 Million in Cartel Case

Bridgestone Corp., Japan’s biggest tiremaker, Continental AG and three competitors were fined 131.5 million euros ($174.7 million) by European Union regulators for fixing the price of hoses used by the oil industry.

Bridgestone received the highest fine of 58.5 million euros because it helped lead the cartel, which lasted more than 20 years, the European Commission, the EU’s antitrust authority, said in a statement today in Brussels.

The commission said the companies allocated bids and markets and exchanged sensitive market information. The case is part of a global probe that led to U.S. charges against as many as 10 executives at British, French, Japanese and Italian companies.

"I will not tolerate illegal cartels and will continue to impose heavy fines on those companies found guilty of this kind of serious malpractice," Neelie Kroes, the EU’s competition commissioner, said in the statement.

Sweden’s Trelleborg AB received the second-highest fine of 24.5 million euros. Continental, Europe’s second-largest tiremaker, and its Grimsby, England-based Dunlop Oil & Marine unit were fined 18 million euros. The commission raised a fine against Parker ITR Srl’s unit in Ortona, Italy, by 30 percent to 25.6 million euros because it helped lead the conspiracy.

Manuli Rubber Industries SpA was fined 4.9 million euros. That amount was cut by 30 percent because the company cooperated with the EU’s probe, the commission said.

Tokyo-based Yokohama Rubber Co., Japan’s second-biggest tire maker, avoided a 14.4-million fine because it tipped off investigators about the cartel, the EU regulator said.

Last December, a former executive of Tokyo-based Bridgestone was sentenced to two years in jail for participating in the conspiracy and fined $80,000 by the U.S. Justice Department.

A marine hose is used to transport oil between tankers and storage facilities and buoys. The hoses are bought by the U.S. military and oil companies including Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. that are involved in off-shore oil exploration. The commission said the European market was worth 32 million euros a year on average between 2004 and 2006.

(Published by Bloomberg - January 28, 2009)