The Market Court recently rendered its judgment in a significant cartel case finding five wholesalers of car spare parts guilty of illegal price cooperation on the Finnish market during the years 2004-2005. The total fines imposed by the Market Court exceed EUR 1,000,000. The purpose of the cartel was to boycott a customer of the wholesalers who had entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with Atoy Oy, a competitor of the cartel participants on the market for the wholesale of car spare parts. Atoy Oy has claimed damages from the undertakings participating in the cartel.
Whereas the biggest individual fine imposed by the Market Court was EUR 500,000, one wholesaler, Oy Arwidson Ab, who had blown the whistle and submitted evidence on the cartel to the Finnish Competition Authority was granted full immunity from fines. This is the first time the Market Court has fined a cartel disclosed as a result of the leniency programme under the Finnish Competition Act.
For more information, please contact *#Ms. Lotta Pohjanpalo#*.