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PAGE 18 EC COMPETITION POLICY NEWSLETTER Vol. 1, N° 2, Summer 1994

THE COMMISSION CONDEMNS A CARTEL OF EUROPEAN CARTONBOARD PRODUCERS AND

IMPOSES SUBSTANTIAL FINES

Acting on a proposal from Mr Van Miert, the Member of the

Commission responsible for Competition policy, the

Commission has imposed fines totalling some 132,15 mio

Ecus on 19 companies (or groups) which over a long period

operated a fixing cartel covering the whole European

cartonboard sector.

The producers of cartonboard - which include several major

international forest products and paper companies as well as

small independent mills - had set up a clandestine cartel to

fix prices and regulate the market under the cover of an

ostensibly legitimate trade association called the PG (Product

Group)Paperboard. Although it emerged during the case that

the cartonboard producers had been attempting - with mixed

success - to bring "order" to the market since the 1970's, it

was from 1986 that they succeeding in bringing in a scheme

which guaranteed that their regular "price initiative" went

through in full across Western Europe.

This massive cartel was uncovered as a result of

unannounced inspections carried out simultaneously in April

1991 by Commission officials at sixteen locations in the EC.

The cartel was a flagrant violation of Article 85 of the EC

Treaty which prohibits agreements and concerted practices

which may affect trade between Member States and which

have as their object or effect to prevent restrict or distort

competition in the Common market. The present case

follows closely on the Commission's decision in February

this year to impose fines of over 100 million ECU on 14

steel producers for price fixing and market sharing. The

present case reveals once again a disturbing level of

sophisticated cartel activity in a major industrial sector.

Mr Van Miert said that the same attitude would be taken

towards any other industry where such blatant antitrust

violations were uncovered. "It is amazing, an very

disturbing, that after more than ten years of active pursuit of

secret cartels and heavy fines, the CommisSion is still

discovering classic market sharings and price fixing cartels

in major industries. This case underlines the fact that only an

enforcement body like the Commission with European-wide

powers of investigation can uncover and sanction such huge

and covert cartels. Despite the elaborate steps taken by the

firms to cover up their unlawful activities, the Commission

inspectors were able once again to discover the detailed

evidence which enabled the Commission to condemn a

serious breach of competition rules".

THE CARTONBOARD SECTOR

Cartonboard is a stiff card-like product used in a variety of

applications but mainly for producing folding boxes for

packaging food and non-food consumer goods and for

graphics purposes. It can be produced from virgin wood

fibres or from recycled waste material.

- The main producers of virgin fibre cartonboard (known as

GC grades) are the Scandinavian integrated forest product

groups - STORA (S), MODO (S) and the FINNBOARD

companies (SF) - whose interests range from forestry

through woodpulp to paper and board. Although

headquartered in Sweden and Finland they now also own

much of EC internal production.

- The principal producers of recycled board (know as "GD"

grades) are SARRIO (Italy) and MAYR-MELNHOF, an

Austrian group which has expanded across Western

Europe and now accounts for 20 % of all European

cartonboard production.

The EC market is worth up to 2.500 million ECU each year.

Annual consumption of cartonboard (all grades) in the EC is

over 3 million tonnes (GC grades = 35 % of consumption;

GD 55 % and a third category SBS or "Solid bleaches

sulphate" the remainder).

Imports from EFTA countries (mainly Finland, Sweden,

Austria) take one third of the EC market. The main

customers for cartonboard are the "converters" (producers of

folding cartons) and the printing industry.

THE MARKET

In the four years from 1987 to 1990 cartonboard

consumption in Western Europe increased by almost 20 %.

During that period, prices were regularly increased (usually

twice each year) by all producers in a series of "price

initiatives" across Western Europe. On each occasion list

prices in each Member State were increased by 6-10 %. At

times prices increases were forced through against

determined customer resistance and despite a fall in the price

of pulp.

This series of price initiatives brought list prices in the EC

up by an average of 26 % in real terms. Net prices (i.e.

after all rebates) increased by 20 % over the period in real

terms. GC prices increased by more than GD. As an

example : for one major producer the net price of GC grades

went up from DM 1.500/t in Germany in March 1988 to DM

2.000/t in mid 1991 (+ 33 %); its GD grades went from DM

1.200/t to DM 1.450/t in the same period (+ 21 %).

THE PROCEDURE

The regular and uniform price increases applies by the whole

cartonboard industry across Europe provoked constant

complaints from customers to the producers but it was only

in late 1980 that the Commission was appraised of the

matter by British and French carton users' Trade

Associations.

Simultaneous and unannounced investigations were carried

out by over 40 inspectors from DG IV and the Member

States in April 1991. Although the British complainant had

in fact publicly announced its complaint in the trade press

and efforts had obviously made to clean up any traces of the

cartel, the Commission's officials discovered a series of

highly secret and incriminating documents (mainly private

notes of cartel meetings and the "blueprint" for a scheme to

control production and bring up the price).

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