The European Commission has fined eight optical disc drive
suppliers a total of €116 million for having coordinated their behaviour
in relation to procurement tenders organised by two computer
manufacturers, in breach of EU antitrust rules.
Optical disc
drives ("ODDs") read or record data stored on optical disks, such as
CDs, DVDs or Blu-ray.They are used for instance in personal computers,
CD and DVD players and video game consoles. The anticompetitive conduct
subject to fines in this case concerns agreements to collude in
procurement tenders for ODDs for laptops and desktops produced by Dell
and Hewlett Packard (HP).
Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy said: "Millions
of EU citizens use devices integrating optical disc drives all the
time, for example when storing their favourite pictures on a disc.
Keeping these markets competitive is important. Today's decision
demonstrates once again that cartelists cannot escape fines just by
holding their meetings in cinemas and car parks outside Europe, while
selling their products in Europe."
Eight suppliers engaged in
the illegal practices covered by this decision, namely Philips,
Lite-On, their joint venture Philips & Lite-On Digital Solutions,
Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology, Sony, Sony
Optiarc and Quanta Storage.
Under the Commission's 2006 Leniency
Notice, Philips, Lite-On and their joint venture Philips & Lite-On
Digital Solutions received full immunity from fines as they were the
first to reveal the existence of the cartel.
The Commission's
investigation revealed that...
Although the cartel contacts took place outside of the
European Economic Area (EEA), they were implemented on a worldwide
basis. Of the companies involved in the cartel, only Philips is
headquartered in Europe. The remaining seven are headquartered in
Asia.The duration of each company's involvement in the cartel varied and
ranged from less than a year to over four years.
The companies
were aware that their behaviour was illegal and tried to conceal their
contacts and to evade detection of their arrangements. For example, they
avoided naming the competitors concerned in their internal
correspondence but used abbreviations or generic names.
The
cartelists also avoided leaving traces of anticompetitive arrangements
by preferring face-to-face meetings and ensured that the competitors'
discussions were not revealed to customers.Some of them met in places
where they could not be easily spotted, including in parking lots or
cinemas.
Fines
The fines were set on the basis of the Commission's 2006 Guidelines on fines (see Press Release and MEMO).
In setting the level of fines, the Commission took into account, in
particular, the companies' sales of the products concerned in the EEA,
the serious nature of the infringement, its geographic scope and its
duration. The fines achieve an appropriate level of deterrence while
remaining proportional to the infringement.
Philips, Lite-On and
Philips & Lite-On jointly received full immunity from fines as they
were the first to reveal the cartel to the Commission, thereby avoiding
an aggregate fine of € 63.5 million. Hitachi-LG Data Storage received a
50% reduction on its fine for its cooperation in the investigation under
the Commission's leniency programme and partial immunity for enabling
the Commission to establish a longer duration of the cartel.
In
setting the fines, the Commission also took account of the fact that
Philips, Sony and Sony Optiarc took part in the cartel behaviour only
with regard to procurement tenders organised by Dell.
The breakdown of the fines imposed to each company for their participation in the cartel is as follows:
