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Anti-trust raiders probe transformers cartel
- The European Commission announced on Tuesday (13 February) that it had raided the offices of several engineering companies in France, Germany and Austria on suspicion of price-fixing in power transformers. Some of the raided companies, including Siemens and ABB, were participants in a cartel in the electricity transmission sector for which the Commission recently imposed fines totalling a record €751 million.
German court attacks Volkswagen law
- A German law protecting carmaker Volkswagen from takeovers is protectionist, said an advocate-general of the European Court of Justice on Tuesday, ahead of a final ruling on the case later this year. He agreed with the Commission, which had challenged the law preventing any shareholder from exercising more than 20% of Volkswagen’s voting rights regardless of their stake, that it "restricts the free movement of capital". Coincidentally, the German state of Lower Saxony, which holds a 21% stake in VW, dropped its opposition to major Porsche shareholder Ferdinand Piëch’s chairmanship of Volkswagen’s supervisory board.
Commission warns Swiss over tax-breaks to global firms
- The Commission on Tuesday issued a warning to Switzerland over tax-breaks offered to multinationals with headquarters in the country. Switzerland, which applies a large proportion of EU internal market rules in return for access to EU consumers, refuted the Commission’s allegation that the tax-breaks are discriminatory.
Verheugen targets free movement of goods
- Günter Verheugen, enterprise and industry commissioner, yesterday (14 February) proposed a package of measures promoting the free movement of goods across internal EU borders. Member states would have to observe principles of mutual recognition of technical standards.
Competition watchdogs ponder merger guidelines
- The Commission launched on Tuesday a three-month public consultation on draft guidelines for mergers between companies that are involved in non-horizontal relationships. Non-horizontal mergers include vertical mergers, such as the acquisition of a supplier by a client company, and conglomerate mergers, which involve companies whose activities are separate but otherwise related. The guidelines will complement existing guidelines on horizontal mergers dealing with companies operating in the same markets.
EU states adopt pharmaceuticals accord
- Member states on Monday (12 February) adopted an international agreement on pharmaceuticals. The Pharma-GATT agreement will eliminate customs duties applied on new pharmaceuticals and chemical intermediates used in their production among nations and territories trading in pharmaceuticals. Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said it was "a show of confidence in the global competitiveness of the EU pharmaceutical industry".
In the 1990s Japan’s economy was put through the wringer. Plunging asset prices and deflation seemed to be condemning to perpetual stagnation an economy which futurologist Herman Kahn projected in 1970 might, by 2000, surpass America’s in terms of income per person. The Asian focus shifted steadily to China.
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