Bundeskartellamt concludes cartel proceedings against chemical wholesalers Fines totalling € 8.7 million imposed on 13 further companies

Today the Bundeskartellamt imposed fines totalling € 8.7 million on 13 companies in the chemical wholesale sector on account of anti-competitive agreements.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt, stated: "With today's fines we have concluded our cartel proceedings in the chemical wholesale sector. Together with the fines decisions of one year ago, we have in total imposed fines on 25 companies. For years representatives of the companies had agreed on prices, quotas and customer allocation in several supply areas."

The companies concerned are A. + E. Fischer Chemie GmbH & Co. KG, Wiesbaden; Bergchemie J. C. Bröcking + Co. GmbH, Wuppertal; Bilgram Chemikalien GmbH, Ostrach; Caldic Deutschland Chemie GmbH & Co. KG, Düsseldorf; Chemische Fabrik Wocklum Gebr. Hertin GmbH & Co. KG, Balve; CSC Jäklechemie GmbH & Co. KG, Nuremberg; F. B. Silbermann GmbH & Co. KG, Gablingen; Hugo Häffner Vertrieb GmbH & Co. KG, Asperg; Kraemer + Martin GmbH, Sankt Augustin, including their branch office Chemikaliengroßhandlung Eva Dilg, Krefeld; Kruse Chemie KG, Balve; Ross Chemie GmbH, Weiden; Theo Seulberger GmbH & Co. KG, Wiesbaden and Vollmer Chemie Vertriebs GmbH, Kirchheim unter Teck.

The illegal agreements concerned standardised industrial chemicals (so-called commodities) that were distributed from the warehouses of the chemical wholesalers. Direct supplies from the chemical producers to the customers (so-called Streckengeschäft) were not part of the agreements. The agreements fined today concerned eight regional cartels south of the River Main. For several years representatives of the companies had agreed on prices and supply quotas and concluded customer protection agreements.

In December 2010, in the same proceedings fines totalling € 15.1 million were imposed on 12 companies (cf. Bundeskartellamt press release of 7 December 2010). At that time the investigations focused on regional cartels in the north and west of Germany.

In the course of the proceedings all the companies agreed to cooperate fully with the Bundeskartellamt. This was taken into account in the setting of the fines.

The orders imposing the fines are not yet final and can be appealed against to the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court. However, all the companies have agreed to have the proceedings terminated by settlement.