NMa fines glazing cartel more than EUR 17 million

In December 2010, the Netherlands Competition Authority (NMa) fined a cartel of four manufacturers of insulated glass for having concluded price-fixing agreements. The fines, totaling EUR 17,746,000, have been imposed on Koninklijke Saint-Gobain Glass Nederland N.V., Scheuten Glas Nederland B.V. and Pilkington Benelux B.V. One manufacturer, AGC Flat Glass Nederland B.V, has not been imposed a fine, since it had confessed the cartel to the NMa by filing a leniency application. Saint-Gobain also filed a leniency application, but only after AGC had filed its application. However, Saint-Gobain does get a 30 per cent reduction on its fine.

The NMa considers proven that the cartel concluded illegal price-fixing agreements concerning the sale of insulated glass to buyers for a period of one year and four months (from May 18, 2004 through September 15, 2005). Buyers of insulated glass include glaziers and wholesalers in glass products. The cartel participants had agreed to raise insulated-glass prices by 10 to 12 per cent and to introduce minimum prices, which were meant to cope with bigger clients in particular, who would not accept the price increase. The cartel participants have sat down together on numerous occasions to discuss the price levels of insulated glass. The cartel consisted of the four largest manufacturers of insulated glass in the Netherlands.

Pieter Kalbfleisch, chairman of the Board of the NMa, reacts: 'Cartels constitute a very serious violation of the Dutch Competition Act, and heavy fines should be put into place to act as a deterrent against them. Cartel agreements almost always harm buyers, and eventually consumers.'

A breakdown of the fines is as follows: Koninklijke Saint-Gobain Glass Nederland N.V. EUR 8,034,000, Scheuten Glas Nederland B.V. EUR 2,252,000 and Pilkington Benelux B.V. EUR 7,460,000. The fine decisions have been determined on the basis of a report that the NMa drew up after it had carried out an investigation, and after the undertakings in question had had the opportunity to respond thereto. The undertakings now have the opportunity to file objections against these decisions with the NMa, or to ask the NMa to agree with directly filing an appeal with the District Court of Rotterdam.

Undertakings and/or individuals can confess their participation in a cartel to the NMa's Leniency Office, which may lead to fine immunity or a fine reduction.