Campine, the Belgian recycling firm penalised for its part in a scrap lead battery price fixing scandal in 2017, has had its fine reduced on appeal against the European Commission’s decision.
The General Court of the EU made the decision to reduce the imposed fine to €4,3 million from the original €8,2 million given to Campine for its alleged collusion in reducing the purchase price paid to suppliers of used vehicle batteries and scrap lead.
Eco-Bat Technologies (UK), Campine and Recylex (France) were fined a total of €68 million ($73 million) by the European Commission for fixing the purchasing price of scrap automotive batteries.
A fourth company, Johnson Controls, escaped a fine because it blew the whistle on the malpractice that ran from 2009 to 2012.
Campine’s chairman Patrick De Groote said: “We are glad the court already recognised the very low involvement of Campine in the alleged cartel actions in the period 2009 – 2012.
“We are still of the opinion that Campine did not actively participate in a cartel formation but was dragged along into this by one of our customers.” he adds.
Campine is now awaiting the detailed motivation of the court and the reaction of the EU commission to assess its legal options.
The firm recycles industrial waste streams, including the dismantling of lead-based car batteries, to produce new raw materials.
The company, founded in 1912, claims to be able to recover about 10kg of recyclable lead from one lead-acid car battery.
