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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Getting hosed |
| 2009-01-31 |
| The EU competition commission recently fined a cartel of marine hose manufacturers for price fixing. Marine hose is a rubberized pipe used to transfer oil between storage facilities and oil tankers and offshore platforms. The main customers are oil companies. The companies involved had met secretly to set prices and bids and to allocate markets. The fine totals $173 million, and is directed at six global companies. They include Bridgestone Tire and Rubber (Japan), Trelleborg SA(Sweden), Manuli Rubber Industries (Italy), Dunlop Oil and Marine (UK-based, but a part of Herman conglomerate Continental Tire Group), and Parker ITR (Us/Italy). Also involved in the cartel was Japan-based Yokohama Rubber, but that company revealed the cartel to EU authorities and so avoided the fine. The US and UK are both said to be pursuing criminal cases on executives involved in the cartel. The UK is moving ever more aggressively on cartel busting, with higher fines, especially to companies that obstruct investigations. |
| Posted by:3dc |