Swiss chemical firm Clariant sued by Dow over price fixing

Ethylene: Clariant sued by Dow Europe Keystone-SDA

Clariant is facing a third complaint concerning breaches of competition law on the ethylene market.

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Following in the footsteps of the French oil and gas giant TotalEnergie and the German chemicals company BASF, Dow Europe, a subsidiary of the US chemicals giant Dow, is in turn suing the Basel-based specialty chemicals company for nearly €767 million (CHF720 million) before the German court in Munich.

In a statement issued on Monday, Clariant said it “firmly rejects” Dow Europe’s accusations and would “categorically” defend its position before the Munich court. The damages claimed by Dow Europe relate to infringements of European competition law on the ethylene purchasing market, which were sanctioned by the European Commission in July 2020.

Clariant notes that Dow Europe did not represent any of its ethylene suppliers at the time of the events, and the Basel group emphasises that it has economic evidence that the activities of the companies concerned “had no effect on the market”.

+ Clariant has no plans for US expansion

In January, Clariant faced a similar complaint from Germany’s BASF, and then from TotalEnergie the following month. BASF is accusing Clariant and three other companies, claiming damages of €1.4 billion. The second company has claimed damages of around €625 million in connection with ethylene sales.

Clariant, Orbia, Celanese and Westlake allegedly colluded to purchase ethylene in order to keep the price as low as possible. The four companies admitted their role in the cartel in the summer of 2020 and reached an out-of-court settlement with the European Commission. Clariant agreed to pay a fine of CHF155.8 million.

Translated from French by DeepL/jdp

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