CURRENT CASES

Copper Tubes & Fittings

We are currently speaking to a number of claimants who wish to recover losses arising from two different cartels who fixed the prices of copper plumbing tubes and copper fittings.

The Cartels
Copper Plumbing Tubes
On 3 September 2004, the European Commission fined a further group of companies a total of € 222,3 million for operating a 12 year cartel in the European market for copper plumbing tubes used for water, heating and gas. The companies involved were Sweden’s Boliden group, Halcor S.A. of Greece, HME Nederland BV, the IMI group (UK), the KME group (Germany, Italy and France), Mueller Industries, Inc. (USA, UK and France), Finland’s Outokumpu and Wieland Werke AG of Germany.

Copper Fittings
On 20 September 2006, the European Commission fined 30 companies a total of €314.76 million for participating in a copper fittings cartel between 1998 and 2004. The cartel included the following corporate groups: Aalberts; IMI, Delta; Advanced Fluid Connections; Legris, Frabo; Mueller; Tomkins; Flowflex; Viegener; and Sanha Kaimer. Four of these groups, namely Aalberts, Delta, Advanced Fluid Connections and Legris, had their fines increased by 60% because they continued their illegal activity after the Commission’s initial inspections. Advanced Fluid Connections’ fine was also increased by a further 50% because it gave misleading information to the Commission. Mueller received full immunity from fines under the Commission’s leniency programme, as it was the first company to come forward with information about the cartel.

Contact
If you are a purchaser of copper plumbing tubes and/or cooper fittings, you may have been significantly overcharged during the relevant cartel periods.

For a free confidential consultation, please contact either Anthony Maton, or Ingrid Gubbay.