Bayer pleads guilty, agrees to $33 million fine in chemical price-fixing c

[seemslikeadream]

Court papers filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco show that Bayer admitted conspiring from 1998 to 2002 with unnamed entities and individuals to suppress market competition by fixing the prices of polyester polyols, a chemical used to strengthen numerous consumer products, including grocery bags.

"Today's charge represents a significant step in our continuing effort to eliminate illegal cartel activity," said R. Hewitt Pate, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's antitrust division.

The plea agreement must be approved by a federal judge. A statement Thursday from Pittsburgh-based Bayer Corp. says the company "has cooperated with the department during the investigation."

The parent firm, Bayer AG, agreed to plead guilty and pay a $66 million fine in July in a case involving a rubber chemical price-fixing conspiracy.
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/09/30/national1357EDT0629.DTL&type=business


U.S. unit of the German company also pleads guilty of participating in a price-fixing conspiracy.
September 30, 2004: 1:54 PM EDT

Bayer unit pays $33 million fine
WASHINGTON, DC (Reuters) - The Pittsburgh-based subsidiary of Germany's Bayer AG has agreed to plead guilty and pay a $33 million criminal fine for participating in a conspiracy to fix prices of the chemical used in various consumer products, including plastic grocery bags, shoe soles and automotive parts, the U.S. Justice Department said Thursday.

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http://money.cnn.com/2004/09/30/news/international/bayer.reut/


Bayer Unit to Pay $33 Mln Fine, Plead to Price Fixing (Update2)

The investigation of the plastics-additive cartel is an outgrowth of Justice Department investigations into collusion by makers of other chemicals, said agency spokeswoman Gina Talamona.

Besides Bayer AG's plea bargain, the Justice Department's rubber chemicals investigation has netted a guilty plea from Crompton Corp., which was fined $50 million. Two former Crompton vice presidents have also agreed to plead guilty to fixing the price of rubber chemicals.

Both Bayer and Crompton are cooperating in the Justice Department's investigation of the global cartel to fix prices of chemicals used to improve the durability, elasticity and strength of tires, outdoor furniture, hoses, belts and shoes, the government said.

The European Commission and authorities in Canada are conducting separate investigations.

Triple Damages

The criminal probes have also exposed Bayer, Crompton and other companies to the threat of triple monetary damages sought by companies that used the companies to make rubber products. U.S. antitrust law allows customers to collect three times the amount they were overcharged by a price-fixing conspiracy.

At least 13 suits filed in U.S. courts accuse BASF AG, the world' largest chemical maker, Crompton and Bayer of fixing the price of urethane, a component of plastics and synthetic rubber.

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http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000100&sid=aGkaiudXlNNQ&refer=germany

[jmowreader]

1. This is about more than just polyurethane

Crompton makes a chemical called EPDM--yes I know what it means, no you don't want to--that is added to natural rubber to help it fight off smog and acid rain. They were fixing the price on it like a big dog. (How the hell Crompton can do price-fixing by itself I have no idea; DuPont and Dow have a joint-venture operation that makes this and they're not named in the suit.)

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if a similar suit about fixing the price of diisocyanate came out. If BASF and Bayer were price-fixing on one of the two major components in polyurethane, they were probably doing the same with the other one.

[gratuitous]

2. But Bayer, unlike you or me

Will stay in business, not miss anything, pass along the fine to consumers in the form of higher prices, and nobody will go to jail. If some slob like you or me had stolen millions of dollars, we'd be in the can, probably for the rest of our natural lives.

[Marxdem]

3. Doesnt bayer have Nazi ties?

nt

[jmowreader]

4. So does BASF

BASF, Bayer, Hoechst (the biggest three), Agfa, Weiler-ter-Meer and Griesheim-Elektron were combined to form IG Farben.