S.I.P.A.C. (ITALIAN SOCIETY FOR THE CONCRETE PROMOTION AND APPLICATIONS) (Conclusion of the investigation)
PRESS RELEASE
The Italian Competition Authority has concluded its proceeding against Italcementi, Unicem, Cementir, Calcestruzzi and Sipac and has found that the agreements among these firms constitute a violation of section 2 of Law. no. 287/90.
The agreeements provided, on the one hand, that the Calcestruzzi Group was committed to acquire, by means of Sipac, 80% of its own cement needs from Italcementi, Unicem and Cementir (or other cement manufacturers indicated by these three companies); on the other hand, Italcementi, Unicem and Cementir were committed to give Calcestruzzi and its controlled firms discounts aimed at ensuring a price always lower than the price applied by each of the three manufacturers to the direct rivals of Calcestruzzi Group.
The Authority has subsequently extended its proceeding to other cement manufacturers involved in the execution of the agreements, such as Merone, Morano, Sacci, Mesacem, Insicem, Ambiente, Anic, Barbetti, Cementizillo and Adriasebina.
In the course of the proceeding, the Authority has ascertained that:
a) Italcementi, Unicem, Cementir and Calcestruzzi, by participating in the agreements, have provided for a mechanism for the fixing of selling prices of the cement all over the market. The cement manufacturers, through the agreements with Sipac, have limited their own autonomy in supplying Calcestruzzi Group as well as their possibilities to react independently to the conditions of demand and supply which occurred in the market. The cement manufacturers have carried out, through Sipac, a greater commercial information exchange in order to guide the Calcestruzzi's and the markets's own selling policy. Finally, they have elaborated specific means for coordinating the investments in the ready-mixed concrete sector.
b) Italcementi, Unicem and Cementir, even subsequently to Sipac's bankruptcy proceeding, adopted uniform contractual schemes aimed at maintaining a coordination mechanism of the conditions of supply towards the Calcestruzzi group.
c) The other cement manufacturers, by agreeing to supply to Calcestruzzi group, through Sipac, have fostered the achievement of the goals which were stated in the agreements undersigned with Sipac, so as to strengthen the anticompetitive effects created by the agreements themselves.
As far the seriousness of the violations is concerned, the Authority has considered that Italcementi, Unicem and Cementir are the main culprits of the ascertained infringements, since they have undersigned all the contracts which are at the basis of the agreements with Sipac. Furthermore, they have participated directly in the management of Sipac itself and have kept up the agreements even after the enforcement of Law no. 287/90, so as to renew them tacitly for other five years in 1992, as well as to allow for their survival via temporary amendments, in 1993 and 1994.
Moreover, Italcementi, Unicem and Cementir have enjoyed the major benefits of the above mentioned conduct. In fact, they derived direct benefits from the commercial information they obtained by Sipac, as well as from the further commercial information relating to the rivals' activities.
On the basis of the diverse effects that Sipac's agreements have created in the market during the period of enforcement and, in particular, in light of these particularly insidious effects generated in the phase coincident with the period of time close to Sipac's bankruptcy proceeding, the Authority decided to impose an administrative fine equal to 1.4 billion lire only on Italcementi, Unicem and Cementir. These fines are so divided: Italcementi 856 million, Unicem 358 million, Cementir 148 million.
The agreement among the firms involved in the proceeding has already been investigated by the European Commission which had expressed its opinion exclusively on the international aspects, while submitting to the national Antitrust Authorities the aspects which did not restrict the international trade.