EU fines Sony, Panasonic, Sanyo 166 mln euros over battery cartel

The European Union (EU)'s anti-trust watchdog on Monday fined Sony, Panasonic and Sanyo a total of 166 million euros (176 million U.S. dollars) for fixing price of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries used in laptops and mobile phones.

The European Commission's investigation found that Samsung SDI, Sony, Panasonic and Sanyo took part in bilateral, and sometimes multilateral, contacts in order to avoid aggressive competition in the market for lithium-ion batteries.

Samsung SDI avoided a fine because it revealed the existence of the cartel to the Commission.

The four companies had agreed on temporary price increases in 2004 and 2007, triggered by a temporary increase in the price of cobalt, a raw material used in the production of lithium-ion batteries.

They exchanged commercially sensitive information such as supply and demand forecasts, price forecasts or intentions concerning particular competitive bids organized by specific manufactures of products such as phones, laptops or power tools.

Monday's decision sends an important signal to companies: if European consumers are affected by a cartel, the Commission will investigate it even if the anti-competitive contacts took place outside Europe, Margrethe Vestager, EU's commissioner in charge of competition policy said.

The cartel contacts took place mainly in Asia and occasionally in Europe. The cartel started in February 2004 and lasted until November 2007. Enditem