Two UK suppliers of rolled lead have admitted to taking part in anti-competitive practices and could face fines of more than £11 million, according to a press release that has been issued from the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA).
The admission from Associated Lead Mills and H.J Enthoven (trading as BLM British Lead), follows an investigation by the CMA. A third company, Calder Industrial Materials, is also under investigation in relation to one of the arrangements and has not made any admissions.
In its original provisional findings, the CMA alleged that Associated Lead Mills, BLM British Lead and Calder Industrial Materials entered into, what the CMA refers to as a “cartel”, to share the market amongst themselves through, for example, the allocation of customers.
The CMA has now revised its provisional findings and has issued the three firms with a “supplementary statement of objections”, which outlines its updated allegations. The CMA’s revised provisional view is that there was not a single overall arrangement, but rather four individual arrangements that broke competition law.
According to the CMA’s revised provisional findings, it claims that Associated Lead Mills and BLM British Lead entered into arrangements including:
- Sharing the market, including by arranging not to target certain customers
- Colluding on prices
- Exchanging commercially sensitive information on prices
- Arranging not to supply a new business that risked disrupting the firms’ existing customer relationships and was also a potential competitor in the market.
In light of the CMA’s updated provisional findings, both Associated Lead Mills and BLM British Lead have now admitted to their parts in these arrangements, which took place between October 2015 and March 2017. The two firms have agreed to pay fines as part of a settlement, totalling more than £11 million if there is a formal final decision that the law has been broken. Associated Lead Mills has agreed to pay a maximum fine of £1,815,614 and BLM British Lead £9,516,572.
With regard to Calder Industrial Materials, the CMA has provisionally found that it became involved, at a later stage, in the arrangement with Associated Lead Mills and BLM British Lead not to supply a new business that risked disrupting the firms’ customer relationships and was a potential competitor in the market.
Calder Industrial Materials has made no admission of liability and the CMA’s investigation is continuing.
Statements from Associated Lead Mills and Calder Industrial Materials
RCI approached Associated Lead Mills, BLM British Lead and Calder Industrial Materials for comments in relation to the press release that was issued from the CMA in relation to its ongoing investigation. Associated Lead Mills and Calder Industrial Materials responded with the following statements below, but BLM British Lead was yet to respond at the time of publishing the story.
The legal team at Associated Lead Mills (ALM) said: “The CMA has today [12 June, 2020] updated its website with a press release regarding its investigation into alleged anti-competitive behaviour amongst the three major manufacturers of rolled lead sheet for the UK: ALM, BLM British Lead and Calder Industrial Materials.
“The CMA’s investigation has been ongoing for several years. It initially alleged that the parties had committed a ‘single and continuous infringement’ by sharing the market between them over several years. However, based on ALM’s representations that this was entirely unfounded, the CMA dropped this allegation.
“Instead, the CMA has provisionally found four ‘standalone’ infringements of competition law relating to isolated, rather than continuing, incidents, which ALM has accepted. All four of the incidents are historical, having occurred in the period between October 2015 and April 2017. Three of the four incidents concerned isolated communications containing sensitive information. The fourth incident related to ALM’s decision not to supply a potential competitor. BLM British Lead has also admitted to its role in these events.
“As explained in the CMA’s press release, ALM and BLM have agreed to pay penalties to the CMA in respect of the historic infringements. The maximum penalty that ALM has been ordered to pay is considerably lower than the amount that BLM has been ordered to pay. Calder Industrial Materials has indicated that it intends to challenge the CMA’s provisional findings.”
Meanwhile, Martin Armour, director at Calder Industrial Materials, issued a statement on behalf of the company. He said: “The Competition and Markets Authority issued a press release in relation to its ongoing investigation into suspected anti-competitive arrangements in the UK roofing materials sector.
“The press release confirms that the CMA has reached a settlement with the parent companies of Associated Lead Mills (ALM) and BLM British Lead, who have admitted to allegations that they entered into anti-competitive agreements involving:
- Sharing the market, including by arranging not to target certain customers
- Colluding on prices
- Exchanging commercially sensitive information on prices
- Arranging not to supply a new business that risked disrupting the firms’ existing customer relationships and was also a potential competitor in the market.
“The CMA has found that Calder did not participate in the anti-competitive agreements between ALM and BLM British Lead relating to market sharing, collusion on prices or the exchange of commercially sensitive information. The case against Calder is now limited to a single allegation that it agreed with ALM and BLM British Lead not to supply another company operating as an agent. Calder continues to strongly deny this allegation and will be responding to the CMA’s supplementary statement of objections in due course.”
 have admitted to taking part in anti-competitive arrangements and could face fines of more than £11 million if found that the law has been broken at the end of the Competition and Markets Authority’s investigation.){kind=link}