Follow-up on the issue of competition in the EU sugar sector
20.2.2014
Question for written answer E-001978-14
to the Commission
Rule 117
Derk Jan Eppink (ECR)
In response to a previous question I submitted on the issue of competition in the EU sugar sector (E-003464/2012), the Commission noted that it stands ‘ready to investigate […] if there are concrete indications of possible anti-competitive behaviour beyond the mere fact of concentration in those markets’.
On 18 February 2014, Germany’s national competition regulator, the Bundeskartellamt, fined Nordzucker, Südzucker and Pfeifer & Langen — the three major German sugar manufacturers — EUR 280 million for concluding anti-competitive agreements on sales areas, quotas and prices. It is striking that the infringements were found to have taken place over several years up to 2009, in some cases dating back to the mid-1990s.
Yet despite this clear evidence of anti-competitive behaviour in the EU sugar market, a Commission spokeswoman recently told Reuters that ‘the Commission will not pursue its investigation into the sugar sector any further at this point in time’[1].
1. Why has the Commission decided to abandon its investigation precisely at a time when the Bundeskartellamt has provided a potential springboard for an EU-wide investigation into anti-competitive behaviour in the sugar sector?
2. Given that we now have concrete evidence of anti-competitive behaviour in a market which was already highly susceptible to such behaviour, due to the concentrated nature of the sector (just four companies hold two thirds of all EU production rights in carefully divided markets), what action does the Commission intend to take at the EU level on this issue?
- [1] See Reuters article of 18.2.2014 ‘Suedzucker, other sugar refiners fined over cartel’.
OJ C 317, 16/09/2014