The European Commission imposed fines totalling €388 million on seven chemical companies today for fixing prices in what it said was a "very serious infringement" of competition rules.
The fines amounted to the third-biggest total imposed on an industry so far by the European Union's top antitrust regulator.
"Cartels are unacceptable corporate behaviour that deprive customers of the benefits of the single market," EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in a statement.
"These high fines take into account that certain companies are repeat offenders. Directors and shareholders alike should ask why these practices were allowed to continue," she said.
A total of nine companies formed a cartel for hydrogen peroxide and perborate, used for bleaching, as far back as 1994, and they agreed to raise prices again at a meeting in a Brussels restaurant in 1997, the European Commission said.
Belgium's Solvay, which faced the biggest fine of 193 million euros as a "repeat offender", said it had prepared for the fine by setting aside reserves in 2004 and 2005 but that the amount was excessive and it intended to appeal.
"The fine will not affect our results," said Martial Tardy, a spokesman for Solvay.
The company blamed the cartel finding on the "reprehensible behaviour of some individuals" and said it was committed to healthy competition. Solvay also had to pay a fine of €35 million to US antitrust authorities earlier this year for its part in a cartel for peroxygen products uncovered by Washington.
The other firms fined by the Commission today were Dutch chemical group Akzo Nobel, Italian utility Edison, Total/Elf Aquitaine/Arkema, Finnish chemical group Kemira, Snia of Italy and FMC/Foret of Spain.
The Commission said the companies exchanged commercially important and confidential information, limited production, allocated market shares and customers and also fixed target prices of hydrogen peroxide and perborate.
Other repeat offenders, whose fines were increased, were Arkema and Edison.
Hydrogen peroxide is an oxidising agent used in the pulp and paper industries for bleaching textiles, disinfection and other environmental applications such as sewage treatment.
Perborate is used mainly as an active substance in synthetic detergents and washing powders. In 2000, the combined market value in the European Economic Area, where the cartel was found to be operating, was estimated at about €470 million for both products