The Bundeskartellamt often imposes large fines for prohibited price fixing. Now a prominent company is defending itself in court. If the lawsuit is successful, the authority would have to pay the fine itself.
Munich (dpa) - Germany's largest agricultural trade group Baywa wants to seek 73 million euros in damages from the Federal Cartel Office in court.
CEO Klaus Josef Lutz accused the federal authority of violating the principles of equal treatment and fair trial on Thursday. The occasion is a recently concluded antitrust lawsuit for crop protection products, which resulted in a fine of almost 69 million euros for Baywa. The agency rejected the allegations and said the company had had the opportunity to distance itself from its actions at any time.
The cartel office had investigated in the case for prohibited price agreements and imposed heavy fines on several companies involved. Baywa accuses a cartel office employee of informing three competing agricultural traders in advance of an anonymous tip - which is why, according to Baywa, these three companies were then able to file a leniency application and went unpunished.
"It must not be that the authority arbitrarily prefers individual companies and thus decides which company remains free of fines," Lutz accused the office. For this reason, the Baywa wants to enforce an official liability claim before the Cologne Regional Court. If Baywa won in full in court, it would mean that the cartel office would have to compensate the company for the fine, which would also cost millions of dollars in legal fees.
"The lawsuit for compensation is surprising since Baywa has admitted the acts and violations of antitrust law committed," said a spokesman for the Cartel Office in Bonn. The allegation is incorrect. "A company involved in a cartel, such as Baywa, has the option at any time to distance itself from its illegal acts on its own initiative and without being triggered by the cartel authority and to act as a key witness to the cartel authority." Due to the evidence, the authority said there were "compelling reasons" not to address Baywa. "Such and other investigative measures are necessary to uncover secret cartels at all."