Pirelli loses appeal against EU cartel ruling on former unit

By Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Italian tyremaker Pirelli on Wednesday lost its appeal against an EU cartel ruling after Europe’s highest court rejected its argument that it should not bear liability for its former subsidiary and cartel member Prysmian .

The European Commission in its 2014 decision fined Prysmian, Nexans, investment bank Goldman Sachs and eight other cable firms 301.6 million euros ($357 million) for operating a 10-year power cable cartel.

Pirelli challenged the EU antitrust decision, saying there were no grounds to charge it with parental liability and that the company directly involved in the cartel should bear sole responsibility.

The Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) dismissed its appeal.

Judges said there was already well-established case law that competition violations by subsidiaries can be imputed to the parent company and that the EU competition enforcer does not need to prove that parent companies are involved in wrongdoing.

Pirelli has previously said it did not expect any financial impact from the Commission’s decision.

The case is Pirelli & C. v Commission C-611/18 P.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Jason Neely)