By Paul McBeth
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Monday 6th October 2008 |
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The European Court of Justice rejected the company’s claim that Coats had a passive rather than an active role in the cartel. Coats had already managed to convince a lower court to reduce the fine to 20 million euros from 30 million.
The appeal was “clearly unfounded,” the court said, according to a ruling posted on its website.
Shares of GPG fell 2.4% to NZ$1.20 and have dropped 29% in the past three months. Coats is the biggest investment for the company chaired by Ron Brierley, accounting for 23% of total assets as at June 30.
The European Commission, the antitrust agency for the European Union, accused Uxbridge-based Coats, Germany’s William Prym GmbH and Entaco of operating a cartel in the haberdashery market between 1994 and 1999. They were Europe’s main needle suppliers in a market worth more than one billion euros per year.
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