EU fines 13 firms in Dutch bitumen cartel

THE European Commission has fined 13 companies a total of 267 million euros (£180 million) for fixing the price of bitumen in the Netherlands. The regulator found that eight bitumen suppliers and five major road builders had been involved in illegal cartel activities for a period of eight years between 1994 and 2002, breaking EU anti-trust rules.

The European Commission found the companies guilty of fixing bitumen prices and rebates in the Dutch road building market, thereby restricting price competition and disadvantaging smaller road building companies who were not part of the agreement.

The eight bitumen suppliers involved were Shell, Total, BP, Esha, Klöckner Bitumen, Kuwait Petroleum, Nynas and Wintershall. The five road builders were Ballast Needham, Dura Vermeer, Heijmans, Koninklijke BAM Groep and Koninklijke Volker Wessels Stavin (KWS).

According to the European Commission, oil giants Shell received the biggest single fine of 108 million euros (£73 million) because they were a repeat offender and had played a leading role in the cartel, while KWS, who received the second biggest fine of 27.3 million euros (£18.4 million), had their penalty increased because they had tried to obstruct the investigations.

BP, who would have faced the second biggest fine of 30.8 million euros (£20.7 million), were granted complete immunity from punishment in return for blowing the whistle on the cartel.

Acknowledging that the fines imposed were high compared with earlier cases, given that the Dutch bitumen market was estimated to be worth 62 million euros (£42 million) in 2002, the last year the cartel was operating, the European Commission said the punishments were in line with a trend towards stiffer financial penalties for companies that engage in competition abuses.