By U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs on Wednesday lost its fight against an EU cartel fine handed down to its former Italian subsidiary and cable maker Prysmian after Europes top court said it was liable for the actions of the unit.
Prysmian was fined 104.6 million euros 127 million by EU antitrust regulators in 2014 for taking part in a cartel with 10 other cable makers.
Its penalty included a joint fine of 37.3 million euros with Goldman Sachs, which had acquired the Italian company via one of its private equity funds in 2005 but has since sold its holding.
The European Commission in its 2014 decision said Goldman Sachs, as the parent company, had decisive influence over Prysmian. A lower EU tribunal in 2018 backed its argument.
The Luxembourgbased Court of Justice of the European Union CJEU agreed with the reasoning and rejected Goldman Sachs appeal.
The General Court did not err in law in finding that, in the present case, the Commission was entitled to rely on a presumption of actual exercise of decisive influence in order to establish the appellants liability for the infringement at issue in relation to the preIPO period, CJEU judges said.
The case is C59518 P The Goldman Sachs Group v Commission.
1 0.8232 euros
Reporting by Foo Yun Chee. Editing by Mark Potter
Source Reuters
