The Commission announced on 14 April that its competition inspectors raided the premises of 5 chemical industry groups on 25 March. It stated that the inspectors were looking for "evidence of suspected price-fixing and exchange of confidential commercial information".
The Commission did not name any of the raided companies, but said the investigation targeted companies manufacturing hydrogen peroxide, solvents and methacrylates and softening agents. The Commission's spokesperson also underlined that the investigation is "at a preliminary stage" and that the companies involved may have done nothing wrong. Belgian chemicals company Solvay, and Germany's BASF and Degussa, announced themselves in separate press releases that they had been under investigation and were cooperating fully with the inspectors. Other chemical groups raided are French TotalFinaElf and German Celanese.
Companies found guilty of fixing prices can be fined up to 10 percent of worldwide annual sales. In 2001, a group of vitamin producers was found guilty of running a cartel and was fined a record amount of 855 million euros.