The European Commission has fined five oil and chemical companies £519m ($682m) for price-fixing.
Italy’s Eni faces the largest fine, of 272m euros (£183m; $357m), while Royal Dutch Shell was fined 160.8m euros.
The EU imposed the fine after learning that five firms were fixing the price of synthetic rubber used for tyres.
The fine is the second largest the commission has imposed for a cartel. It came after Germany’s Bayer told EU lawmakers of the price-fixing.
The move gave Bayer immunity from any fine, which could have amounted to some 204m euros.
Repeat offenders
The fines for both Eni and Royal Dutch Shell were increased by 50% because they have previously committed similar offences.
The European Commission fined some of the region’s top oil firms, including Shell and Total, for fixing the price of bitumen in September.
Eni, which said the fine was “entirely disproportionate and unjustified”, has said it might look making an appeal against the decision.
Other firms fined over the latest price-fixing scheme include Dow Chemical, which has been ordered to pay 64.5m euros.
The figure was 40% below the original figure after Dow provided regulators with information in support of Bayer’s findings.
Unipetrol, a Czech refining firm, has been told to pay 17.5m euros, while Polish firm Trade Stomil faces a 3.8m euro fine.
The largest fine imposed by the commission on a cartel came in 2001, after it ordered eight pharmaceutical firms to pay 790m euros for fixing the price of vitamins.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/business/6157261.stm
Published: 2006/11/29 18:10:59 GMT
© BBC MMVI
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
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: 
MORE DETAILS:
A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
