RAF CASERT, Brussels September 14 2006
ROYAL Dutch Shell was among 14 companies fined §267m (£180m) by the European Union yesterday, following a ruling that they had run a cartel over eight years to fix the price of a key asphalt ingredient for Dutch road works projects.
The oil giant has to pay by far the highest fine – §108m – in the road bitumen investigation. In a statement, the European Commission said the company was an instigator, took the leadership in the cartel and was a repeat offender.
“We should not have attended these meetings and we regret our involvement in this case,” president-director Rein Willems of Shell Nederland said in a statement.
Alexandra Wright, of the parent company Royal Dutch Shell in London, said the company would need time to study the reasoning behind the fines before it decides whether to appeal. She could not comment on whether Shell’s fine is the largest the company has ever faced.
The EU head office said the KWS company tried to obstruct the Commission’s investigation.
The fines were the seventh-largest imposed on a cartel by the EU executive. EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes has often stressed that one of her main objectives is to counter market-distorting cartels.
The bitumen road construction market in the Netherlands was valued at §62m in 2002 and the fines combined were over four times the annual value.
“It is very high compared to the value of the market,” said EU spokesman Jonathan Todd, arguing that there were serious aggravating circumstances involving Shell and KWS, which was fined §27.36m.
Shell’s fine was increased by 50% because of its involvement in previous cartels and another 50% for instigating and leading the cartel. -AP
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Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
