The firm, headquartered in Ornans in eastern France, said its plea to the Comision Nacional de la Competencia (CNC) is based on the fact that its subsidiary Veripack was owner of cartel member Autobar Packaging Spain for just a small portion of the eight-years during which price fixing took place.
The company told FoodProductionDaily.com that it should not be held responsible for the actions of the previous owners and has questioned the size of the financial penalty handed down.
Fruit packaging price fixing
The CNC announced last month that, following an 18-month investigation, three companies had been penalised for operating the price fixing ring in direct contravention of the Spanish Competition Act 15/2007 between 1999 and 2007.
The body said the cartel – made up of those manufacturing and marketing fruit and vegetable packaging - met to conspire to fix prices and share out clients.
As well as Groupe Guillin, Italian firm ILPA and UK-based Linpac were slapped with fines totalling around €13m over the activitities of their Spanish subsidiaries.
Linpac, through its ownership of Spanish player Infia, was fined €8.3m but was exempted from paying anything after turning whistleblower in the case. ILPA was fined just over €1m and it has also appealed.
This means that the fine for the French outfit – at €2.8m for its subsidiary Veripack for which Groupe Guillin would also be jointly and severally liable for €2.2m – was the highest for the offenders.
Legitimate?
The company said it only became part of the Spanish probe after its subsidiary Veripack acquired specific assets of Autobar Packaging Spain in June 2006.
It has strongly questioned the justification both for being censured and the amount of the fine.
“The Guillin Group vigorously contests the legitimacy of the CNC’s finding as well as the amount of the sanction,” said a company statement sent to FoodProductionDaiy.com. “Indeed, the Guillin Group considers itself as not liable for his predecessor’s doings, namely Autobar Packaging Spain, a company that is still running.”
Groupe Guillin confirmed the company had lodged an appeal with Madrid in an effort to “claim its rights”.
Asked if Groupe Guillin had been aware of the price-fixing activities, the date it had found out about them and whether it had informed the authorities, the company said it was unable to comment as a legal procedure was on-going.