Record Fine for Cartel Activities
Article by Mark Williamson & Brendon Mahood
As has been widely reported, Koppers Arch Wood Protection (NZ) Limited and its Australian parent company, Koppers Arch Investments Pty Limited, were recently fined a total of $3.6 million after they admitted participating in cartel behaviour in the wood preservative chemicals industry between 1998 and 2002.
The $3.6 million in penalties were made up of $2.85 million for price-fixing and $750,000 for attempting to exclude a new entrant into the market. The Koppers Arch companies were also ordered to pay $100,000 in costs to the Commerce Commission.
The case is the first major cartel case to be brought before the Courts since the maximum penalty for a body corporate engaged in anti-competitive conduct was raised in 2001 from $5 million to the greater of $10 million or a figure equal to three times the commercial gain from the conduct or (if this can not be ascertained) 10% of turnover of the body corporate
