“Arctic maintains its position, which was also presented to the Competition Council, and categorically rejects allegations of a possible anti-competition agreement with the other members of RoRec,” the company said in a press release.
It added that, although the buy-back investigations referred to the local market, the fine was imposed to the total turnover, while 70% of Arctic’s sales were represented by exports.
Romanian antitrust authorities gave fines totaling 56.5 million lei (EUR12.7 million) to 14 electronic and home appliance companies, members of RoRec and Ecotic associations, for sealing anti-competition agreements within the buy-back campaigns.
The companies were fined for jointly establishing the discounts and the control of sales in the buy-back campaigns by assigning a budget proportional with the pre-existing market shares of the member companies, instead of targeting to maximize the number of collected waste, the Competition Council said Thursday.
The eight fined RoRec member companies are Arctic, with a RON24 million fine, BSH Electrocasnice – RON1.4 million, Candy Hoover Romania – RON440,426, Electrolux Romania – RON9.8 million, Gorenje Romania – RON1.043 million, Indesit Company Magyarorszag – RON2.66 million, Philips Romania – RON5 million and Whirlpool Romania – RON3.4 million.
The antitrust authorities also fined six Ecotic member companies: Agis Computer (RON3.2 million), CG&GC Intelligent Technology (RON13,500), Gemini (RON1.43 million), Maguay Impex (RON756,710), Panasonic Marketing Europe Wiesbaden Germania (RON209,597), Scop Computers (RON3 million).
EU legislation stipulates that manufacturers and retailers of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) must take care of the waste resulting from their products, making sure that they are disposed of in a non-polluting manner, aiming to protect the environment, as well as to recycle all materials that can be re-used.
RoRec is a non-profit organization including the major electronics producers and distributors that control about 70% of the Romanian market, while Ecotic groups the main producers and resellers of electronics and IT products.
The associations were established to take over producers responsibility in terms of collection, treatment, re-use, recycling, and recovery of waste of electric and electronic equipment and also securing the sound disposal and safety of the environment. (EUR1=RON4.5275)