European Commission fines Lantmännen $52.3M for participating in ethanol cartel

In Belgium, the European Commission has fined Lantmännen ek för and its subsidiary Lantmännen Biorefineries AB (formerly named Lantmännen Agroetanol AB) (together ‘Lantmännen’) around €47.7 million for participating in a cartel concerning the wholesale price formation mechanism for ethanol in Europe.  This decision follows the adoption of a settlement decision against Abengoa in 2021 and the closure of proceedings against Alcogroup in 2023.

The Commission’s investigation revealed that Lantmännen, together with two other companies:

·      Coordinated its trading conduct on a regular basis before, during and after the MOC Window.

·      Agreed to limit the supply of physical ethanol in the Rotterdam area that could end up in the MOC Window.

·      Exchanged commercially sensitive information in order to implement the coordinated behavior.

This conduct was based on a common plan aimed at artificially increasing, maintaining and/or preventing from decreasing the level of Platts’ ethanol benchmarks. Lantmännen expected that this would lead to higher prices for its ethanol sales under the ethanol supply contracts that were referenced to those benchmarks. Illegal contacts took place between traders typically in the form of chats.

The Commission’s investigation showed that Lantmännen participated in a single and continuous infringement of Article 101(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU’) and Article 53(1) of the Agreement on the ‘EEA, which covered the entire EEA. Lantmännen’s involvement lasted from November 14, 2012 to March 25, 2014.