European court rejects Philips and Infineon complaint about cartel fine

The General Court of the European Union has ruled against Philips and Infineon. The companies objected to the cartel fine that was imposed on them in 2014 because of price agreements on chips that are used in, among other things, SIM cards.

Philips and Infineon denied that there was any cartel and appealed after the European Commission imposed a fine. The companies also did not agree with the amount of the fine imposed, which is said to have been calculated incorrectly.

The General Court ruled on Thursday that the Commission was indeed right to fine the companies and states that Philips and Infineon have not put forward any argument that would show that the Commission made an error in calculating the amounts of money. This keeps the fines in place.

Infineon has to pay almost 83 million euros and Philips more than 20 million euros. The fines are based on the turnover of the companies. Infineon was the most severely punished and disagreed, as the company was the least involved in the cartel. The Court of First Instance confirmed this, but that does not alter the fact that the company achieved a much higher turnover than the other accomplices. That is why the Court also finds the fine justified.

In 2008, the European regulator started an investigation into chip manufacturers Philips, Infineon, Samsung and Renesas. It turned out that the companies had made price agreements among themselves about smart card chips, which are used in SIM cards and bank cards, among other things. The prohibited trading practices took place between 2003 and 2005.

Renesas was not fined, because the company sounded the bell about the abuses. Samsung received a thirty percent reduction on the fine imposed, because the company had cooperated well with the investigation. Infineon received a twenty percent reduction. The company considered that too little, but the General Court of the EU also rejected that objection.