The Court of Appeal has today confirmed that Byko committed serious breaches of competition law. The Competition Appeals Board had considered a fine of 65 million krónur appropriate, but the Reykjavík District Court had increased Byko's fine to 400 million krónur. Landsréttur ruled that Byko's fine should be 325 million krónur.
The background to the case is that in May 2015, the Competition Authority concluded that Byko had breached competition law and the EEA Agreement through extensive illegal collusion with the former Húsasmiðjan. This concerned price-fixing on important building materials. The case began when Múrbúðin approached the Competition Authority and reported attempts by Byko and the former Húsasmiðjan to get Múrbúðin to take part in the illegal collusion. The Competition Authority considered this to be a serious infringement and imposed a 650 million króna fine on Norvik, Byko's parent company.
Norvik and Byko appealed the decision of the Competition Authority to the Competition Appeals Board. In October 2015, the board concluded that Byko had participated in illegal price-fixing and breached competition law. However, the panel did not agree that the provisions of the EEA Agreement had been breached. The panel also considered that Byko's infringement was not as serious as the Competition Authority had found. The panel therefore considered it appropriate to reduce Byko's fine from 650 million krónur to 65 million krónur. The District Court, however, considered the offences to be much more serious and increased Byko's fine at the request of the Competition Authority. The district court also agreed with the Authority that Byko had breached the EEA Agreement's prohibition on anti-competitive collusion.
In its judgment today, the Court of Appeal agrees with the Competition Authority that when Byko's breaches are„Assessed holistically [become] to establish that these are serious infringements directed against consumers' significant interests. The infringements were committed intentionally.“
The reduction of the fine by the Court of Appeal from that which was decided at first instance was based, inter alia, on the fact that the Court of Appeal did not agree with the Competition Authority that Byko had also breached the EEA Agreement.
The judgment can be seen here.
Background information:
The offences in this case are not related to the current operators of Húsasmiðjan. The investigation into Húsasmiðjan's involvement in the case concluded in July 2014. In a settlement dated 9 July 2014, the former operator of Húsasmiðjan, Holtavegur 10 ehf., acknowledged that the old Húsasmiðjan had engaged in illegal collusion with Byko.
In accordance with its statutory role, the Competition Authority referred the directors and employees of Byko and the former Húsasmiðjan to the police for their part in the collusion. In a Supreme Court judgment in case no. 360/2015, eight employees of the companies were found guilty.
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