DuPont fined $4 million for price fixing scandal

By Simona Stankovska, ERJ Reporter

Ottawa, Canada -- The Criminal Bureau of Competition (CBC) announced today that DuPont Performance Elastomers Llc has been fined $4 million(€2.9 million) for its role in an international conspiracy to fix prices of polychloroprene rubber.

“The Competition Bureau protects consumers and businesses against price fixing agreements and does not hesitate to prosecute any business, whether located in Canada or abroad, that engages in these illegal activities,” said Denyse MacKenzie, senior deputy commissioner of competition, in a 19 July statement.

The statement said that from August 1999 to April 2002, DuPont and co-conspirators agreed to fix the prices of polychloroprene rubber sold in the North American market. The sales from these products were approximately $50 million for the relevant period and DuPont share of the market represented approximately 70 percent.

DuPont confirmed this in an 20 July email to ERJ, and said that it has reached an agreement with the CBC - entering a guilty plea to one charge of price fixing, and has been fined as a result.

DuPont stated that it has cooperated fully with governmental authorities throughout the investigation and is “committed to serving customers with the highest standards of ethical and legal compliance," said the company.

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Press release from CCB