Electrolux EU 0561 C Manual de usuario descargar pdf (Pagina 19)

Vol. 1, N° 2, Summer 1994 EC COMPETITION POLICY NEWSLETTER PAGE 19

In August 1991 the Swedish management of STORA

informed the Commission that it accepted that several

companies in the group had been involved in a serious

infringement of Article 85. STORA had recently taken over

the German producer FELDMUEHLE which had been a

ringleader of the cartel. After further information was

provided by STORA, the Commission issued a detailed

statement of objections in December 1992 addressed to some

23 undertakings. An oral hearing was held in June 1993.

Some half of the firms involved did not deny the essential

facts alleged against them.

Others however consisted to insist against all the weight of

the evidence that the meetings had been no more than "social

occasions".

THE PRODUCERS

: (see Table)

THE CARTEL

The Commission's investigations uncovered a highly

formalised structure of collaboration between virtually all the

suppliers of cartonboard in Western Europe. Under the cover

of an ostensibly legitimate trade association known as the

"Product Group Paperboard" and formally under the umbrella

of the European Paper Institute or EPI (which is not itself

involved), the participants had in fact set up an elaborate and

institutionalised price fixing and market sharing cartel.

The PG Paperboard had been set up in 1981 and had

attempted to regulate the market for several years but in

1986 following a reorganisation of its structures the cartel

began to operate more successfully.

The main cartel structures (besides a formal "General

Assembly" which did not conduct cartel business) were :

- A "President Working Group" (PWG) of Managing or

Commercial Directors which acted as the directory of the

Cartel and took the major strategic decisions : this

consisted of Cascades; Finnboard; KNP (up to 1988),

MAYR-MELNHOF, THAMES BOARD (later part of

MoDo); SARRIO; two STORA companies (including

FELDMUEHLE) and WEIG (from 1988). It met five or

six times a year.

- A President Conference (consisting of all producers) to

which the PWG reported;

- A "Joint Marketing Committee" (JMC) of marketing

manager level also grouping all the producers (except

Enso-Gutzeit) which prepared and briefed the PWG,

executed its directives and met once a month;

- An Economic Committee (most producers).

Cartel meetings were usually held in luxury hotels in Zurich.

A Swiss fiduciary company, FIDES, not only conducted the

information exchange system by which the operation of the

cartel was monitored and policed but also provided the cartel

secretariat in meetings.

THE OPERATION OF THE CARTEL

The key to the success of the cartel was achieving a balance

between supply and demand which would enable the

concerted "price initiatives" to go through. This was done

by agreeing a joint policy of so called "price before tonnage"

in 1987 to which all (and particularly the leading) producers

adhered. This arrangement was designed to accomodate the

conflicting ambitions of the EFTA and the Community

producers. In effect, the main producers reached a

consensus on their respective market share : they all realized

that aggressive attempts to gain market share would

undermine their carefully orchestrated price initiatives.

Firms which were suspected of deviating from the plan were

required to explain themselves to the others and pressure was

put on any perceived laggard to put up its prices to the

agreed levels.

By comparing the state of their respective order books the

producers were able to judge from the state of the market

when it was opportune to introduce a price initiative.

A machinery was also set up for the major producers to

concert on "downtime" (planned temporary plant stoppages)

so as to avoid excessive production.

The "price initiatives" which took place every six months

were planned and programmed in advance in the most

explicit detail. The idea was to achieve a uniform

pan-European price system. After it had been decided how

much the market would bear, a table of the increases for

each grade and in each national currency was drawn up.

These increases were then "announced" to customers and in

the trade press. A particularly disturbing feature of this

cartel was that, in order to disguise the concerted increases

as natural "price leadership", the producers also decided the

scenario in advance : who would be first to "announce" and

on what date, and the precise order and dates on which each

of the others would purport to "follow". The order was

varied each time with different producers taking turns to be

the price leader.

One document (from a JMC meeting of 6 September 1990)

obtained by the Commission is typical :

Price" increase will be announced next week in September

F FF 40 (100 kg) NL HFL 14

D DM 12 I Lit 80 (kg)

B BF 2,50 (kg) CH SF 9

GB # 40 (tonne) IRL # 45

All grades should be increased equally.

Only 1 price increase a year.

For deliveries from 7 January.

Not later than 31 January.

14 September letter with price increase (Mayr-Melnhof).

19 September Feldmuehle sending its letter.

Cascades before end of September.

All must have sent out their letters before 8 October.

The private notes of a number of JMC meetings discovered by

the Commission inspectors at several different undertakings

(notably Mayr-Melnhof's German subsidiary FS-Karton in

Neuss) were made contrary to a general understanding

among the cartel members that no incriminating evidence was

to be kept. Besides the elaborate orchestration of price

increases (to make them look like the natural operation of the

market), the measures of concealment taken by the producers

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