EU: Court of Justice slams EC glass cartel fines

The EU’s highest court granted a reduction in fines for Guardian Industries Corp, originally penalized by the European Commission for its alleged participation in a glass cartel.

According to reports, the EU Court of Justice criticized the Commission’s method for calculating the fines of nearly $606 million sanctioned against Guardian, based in the US, and three of its competitors. The companies were found in 2007 to have manipulated the flat glass market by forming a cartel.

But the Court of Justice ruled that the Commission did not accurately consider the structure of each company when it calculated the fines. “Excluding a company’s internal sales would effectively favor vertically integrated companies by reducing their relative weight in the infringement to the detriment of other companies” like Guardian,” the judges said.

As such, the Court reduced Guardian’s fines by 30 percent to $129 million, reports say.

Guardian had previously lost its appeal of the fine in 2012.

Full content: Bloomberg

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