EU antitrust regulators today fined glass makers Asahi, Guardian, Pilkington and Saint-Gobain €487m for running an illegal price fixing cartel.
The European Commission accused the companies of conspiring to coordinate price hikes and taking other actions to control prices for flat glass used in construction through illegal meetings from early 2004 to early 2005.
The four companies hold a combined 80% share of the European flat glass market, which was worth €1.7 billion in 2004, according to the European Commission.
'The companies will have done very well out of this cartel until today,' EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in Brussels today.
'It is right that the punishment in this case is severe in order to achieve a sufficient deterrent effect and it is a great pity that the Commission's many previous cartel decisions did not deter the companies from forming the cartel,' she added.
Guardian, a US company, got the biggest fine of €148m for its role while Britain's Pilkington was fined €140m and French group Saint-Gobain was ordered to pay €133.9m.
Japanese group Asahi, which cooperated with the Commission and provided additional evidence in the case, received a much lower fine of €65m.
The case goes back to February and March 2005 when surprise inspections were carried out at the companies' premises. The four can appeal against the fines at the European Court of Justice while people who consider they were affected by the cartel can seek damages.
Saint-Gobain and Pilkington are also targetted in a separate investigation by EU regulators on suspicion that they participated in a car glass cartel.
The construction glass cartel was the seventh such grouping to be fined so far, bringing total penalties this year to over €3 billion, officials said.
In February, the Dutch commissioner slapped the biggest fine ever in a EU cartel case by ordering leading lift makers to pay a combined €992m.
