Developments In International Removal Services Cartel Appeals Before ECJ

In November and December 2012, the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") issued a judgment and its Advocate General ("AG") issued two opinions concerning a number of appeals brought against the Commission's 2008 decision in the international removal services cartel case. In its decision, the Commission imposed fines of over €32.7 million on eleven undertakings, which were found to have participated in cartel affecting the provision of international removal services in Belgium (see VBB on Competition Law, Volume 2008, No. 3, available at www.vbb.com). The Commission found that the cartel consisted of price-fixing, market-sharing and bid rigging in the international services market from the mid-1980s to the beginning of the 1990s, in breach of Article 101 TFEU.