Final Report of the Hearing Officer (1)

(Case AT.40410 – Ethylene)

(2021/C 24/08)

The draft decision, addressed to Westlake (2), Orbia (3), Clariant (4) and Celanese (5) (collectively ‘the Parties’), concerns a single and continuous infringement of Article 101 of the TFEU covering the territories of Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Germany that took place between 26 December 2011 and 29 March 2017. The draft decision finds that the undertakings comprising the Parties participated in that infringement, which consisted in exchanging of sensitive commercial and price-related information and in fixing of a price element related to the purchase of ethylene.

On 10 July 2018, the Commission initiated proceedings pursuant to Article 11(6) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 (6) against the Parties.

Following settlement discussions (7) and settlement submissions (8) in accordance with Article 10a(2) of Commission Regulation (EC) No 773/2004 (9), the Commission adopted a statement of objections (‘SO’) addressed to the Parties on 7 February 2020.

In their respective replies to the SO, the Parties confirmed pursuant to Article 10a(3) of Regulation (EC) No 773/2004 that the SO reflected the contents of their settlement submissions and that they therefore remained committed to following the settlement procedure.

Pursuant to Article 16 of Decision 2011/695/EU, I have examined whether the draft decision deals only with objections in respect of which the Parties have been afforded the opportunity of making known their views. I conclude that it does so.

In view of the above, and taking into account that the Parties have not addressed any requests or complaints to me (10), I consider that the effective exercise of the procedural rights of the Parties to the proceedings in this case has been respected.

(1)  Pursuant to Article 16 of Decision 2011/695/EU of the President of the European Commission of 13 October 2011 on the function and terms of reference of the hearing officer in certain competition proceedings (OJ L 275, 20.10.2011, p. 29).

(2)  Westlake Chemical Corporation, Westlake Germany GmbH & Co. KG, Vinnolit GmbH & Co. KG and Vinnolit Holdings GmbH (together referred to as ‘Westlake’).

(3)  Orbia Advance Corporation, S.A.B. de C.V. (until 5 September 2019 the legal entity was named Mexichem S.A.B. de C.V.) and Vestolit GmbH (together referred to as ‘Orbia’).

(4)  Clariant AG and Clariant International AG (together referred to as ‘Clariant’).

(5)  Celanese Corporation, Celanese Services Germany GmbH and Celanese Europe B.V. (together referred to as ‘Celanese’).

(6)  Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 of 16 December 2002 on the implementation of the rules on competition laid down in Articles 81 and 82 of the Treaty (OJ L 1, 4.1.2003, p. 1)

(7)  The settlement meetings took place between 18 September 2018 and 12 November 2019.

(8)  The Parties submitted their formal requests to settle between 19 November 2019 and 6 January 2020.

(9)  Commission Regulation (EC) No 773/2004 of 7 April 2004 relating to the conduct of proceedings by the Commission pursuant to Articles 81 and 82 of the EC Treaty (OJ L 123, 27.4.2004, p.18).

(10)  Under Article 15(2) of Decision 2011/695/EU, parties to the proceedings in cartel cases which engage in settlement discussions pursuant to Article 10a of Regulation (EC) No 773/2004, may call upon the hearing officer at any stage during the settlement procedure in order to ensure the effective exercise of their procedural rights. See also paragraph 18 of Commission Notice 2008/C 167/01 on the conduct of settlement procedures in view of the adoption of Decisions pursuant to Article 7 and Article 23 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 in cartel cases (OJ C 167, 2.7.2008, p. 1).