EU Raids Chemical Firms Suspected Of Price-Fixing

By Agence France-Presse The European Commission (EC) said April 14 it had conducted surprise inspections of chemical firms suspected of price-fixing. Germany's BASF AG said it was one of a number of European firms targeted. A company spokeswoman said that BASF was "cooperating with the commission and handed over the documents requested". The EC said the inspections, undertaken with the cooperation of the relevant authorities of four countries, took place on March 25 at the premises of key European producers of hydrogen peroxide, softening agents, solvents and methacrylates. "The purpose of these inspections is to ascertain whether there is evidence of suspected price-fixing, market and customer allocation, and exchange of confidential commercial information in relation to sales of the above-mentioned chemical products," commission spokesman Amelia Torres said in a statement. Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2003