Competition: Commission re-adopts fine on Bolloré for participation in carbonless paper cartel
- Sweden
- 07/02/2010
- Roschier, Attorneys Ltd. - Sweden
The Commission re-adopted its 2001 decision fining the French company Bolloré SA (“Bolloré”) for its participation in a carbonless paper cartel between 1992 and 1995. The Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJ”) annulled the Commission’s 2001 decision due to procedural errors.
The CJ considered that Bolloré’s rights of defense were infringed because it could not have foreseen from the wording of the original Statement of Objections (“SO”) that the Commission intended to hold it liable not only as a parent company of the cartel participant Copigraph, but also on account of its own involvement in the cartel. After sending a new SO in December 2009, which addressed both Bolloré’s parental liability and its direct involvement, the Commission re-adopted its decision correcting the procedural error.
In the re-adopted decision, the Commission increased the reduction of the fine imposed on Bolloré for cooperation under the Commission’s Leniency Notice from 20% to 25%, as Bolloré no longer contested the participation of its former subsidiary Copigraph in the early stage of the cartel. Thus, the fine imposed on Bolloré was reduced from EUR 22.68 million to EUR 21.26 million. Source: Commission Press Release 23/6/2010
