AGC Glass Europe is an international glass manufacturing group based in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, and the European branch of the AGC Inc. Group.
AGC Glass Europe currently employs some 14,500 people. [1] Its industrial facilities comprise 18 float glass lines, 10 automotive glass processing centres and more than 100 distribution-processing units in Europe, stretching from Spain to Russia.
Glaverbel was founded in 1961 in Belgium out of the merger of Glaver S.A. (Glaces et Verres) and Univerbel S.A. (Union des Verreries Mécaniques Belges). In 1972, the French BSN (Boussois-Souchon-Neuvesel) group (now Danone) gained control over Glaverbel. [2] Glaverbel started with a restructuring program and diversified into glass processing in 1974. [3]
In 1981, BSN shed its flat glass activities and the Asahi Glass Co. Ltd. of Japan acquired Glaverbel. In 1987, Glaverbel was registered at the Brussels stock exchange and in 1991, expanded into Central Europe with the acquisition of Glavunion in Czechoslovakia. Glaverbel was the first western industrial company to invest in Czechoslovakia, and in 1997, the first western glass producer to invest in Russia. In 1998, Glaverbel acquired the European glass activities of PPG Glass Industries , mainly located in France and Italy.
In 2002, AGC acquired the whole of Glaverbel, and was deregistered from the Brussels stock exchange. In 2007, Glaverbel was renamed as AGC Flat Glass Europe and in 2010, AGC Glass Europe. [2]
Jean-François Heris is AGC Glass Europe President and CEO to date. AGC Glass Europe employs around 14,500 people. [1]
Splintex was being a brand of automotive glasses which was being owned by Glaverbel Group until 2007.
In 2015, AGC acquired Polish automotive glass manufacturer NordGlass. [4]
AGC Flat Glass Europe (Glaverbel) is one of the four glass manufacturers who were fined a total of 486.9 million euros ($717.5 million; £348.2m) by the European Commission on 28 November 2007, for illegally co-coordinating price rises. [5] The European Commission said the firm had raised or stabilised prices in 2004 and 2005, through illicit contacts with the other principal glass manufacturers: Guardian Industries of the US, Pilkington (the UK unit of Nippon Sheet Glass), and Saint-Gobain of France; all four of which together controlled 80% of Europe's market for flat glass. [6]
Neelie Kroes, the EU's competition commissioner, said that the EU would "not tolerate companies cheating consumers and business customers by fixing prices and depriving them of the benefits of the single market". [7] [8]
A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. A cartel is an organization formed by producers to limit competition and increase prices by creating artificial shortages through low production quotas, stockpiling, and marketing quotas. Cartels can be vertical or horizontal but are inherently unstable due to the temptation to defect and falling prices for all members. Additionally, advancements in technology or the emergence of substitutes may undermine cartel pricing power, leading to the breakdown of the cooperation needed to sustain the cartel. Cartels are usually associations in the same sphere of business, and thus an alliance of rivals. Most jurisdictions consider it anti-competitive behavior and have outlawed such practices. Cartel behavior includes price fixing, bid rigging, and reductions in output. The doctrine in economics that analyzes cartels is cartel theory. Cartels are distinguished from other forms of collusion or anti-competitive organization such as corporate mergers.
Price fixing is an anticompetitive agreement between participants on the same side in a market to buy or sell a product, service, or commodity only at a fixed price, or maintain the market conditions such that the price is maintained at a given level by controlling supply and demand.
AGC Inc., formerly Asahi Glass Co., Ltd.'(旭硝子株式会社), is a Japanese global glass manufacturing company, headquartered in Tokyo. It is the largest glass company in the world and one of the core Mitsubishi companies.
Grolsch Brewery , known simply as Grolsch, is a Dutch brewery founded in 1615 by Willem Neerfeldt in Groenlo. In 1895 the de Groen family bought the brewery. They had started their own brewery in Enschede in the early 19th century. It held a significant stake until November 2007. Today the main brewery is located in Enschede.
Coats Group plc is a British multi-national company. It is the world's largest thread and structural components manufacturer for apparel, footwear, and performance materials. Founded over 250 years ago, the UK-based company has operations across 50 countries with a workforce of over 17,000 employees.
Compagnie de Saint-Gobain S.A. is a French multinational corporation, founded in 1665 in Paris and headquartered on the outskirts of Paris, at La Défense and in Courbevoie. Originally a mirror manufacturer, it also produces a variety of construction, high-performance, and other materials. Saint-Gobain is present in 76 countries and as of 2022 employs more than 170,000 people.
ThyssenKrupp AG is a German industrial engineering and steel production multinational conglomerate. It resulted from the 1999 merger of Thyssen AG and Krupp and has its operational headquarters in Duisburg and Essen. The company claims to be one of the world's largest steel producers, and it was ranked tenth-largest worldwide by revenue in 2015. It is divided into 670 subsidiaries worldwide. The largest shareholders are the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation and Cevian Capital. ThyssenKrupp's products range from machines and industrial services to high-speed trains, elevators, and shipbuilding. The subsidiary ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems also manufactures frigates, corvettes, and submarines for the German and foreign navies.
Pilkington is a glass-manufacturing company which is based in Lathom, Lancashire, United Kingdom. It includes several legal entities in the UK, and is a subsidiary of Japanese company Nippon Sheet Glass (NSG).
The Commissioner for Competition is the member of the European Commission responsible for competition. The current commissioner is Margrethe Vestager (ALDE).
Trelleborg AB is a global engineering group focused on polymer technology, with headquarters in Trelleborg, Sweden, with 16,701 employees and with yearly revenue of 30.1 billion SEK as of 2022. It became a public company in 1964 and currently trades on the Nasdaq Stockholm as a large cap component. It has operations in 40 countries and describes its mission as the development of "engineered polymer solutions that seal, damp and protect critical applications in demanding environments".
Nippon Sheet Glass Co., Ltd. is a Japanese glass manufacturing company. In 2006, it acquired Pilkington of the United Kingdom. This makes NSG/Pilkington one of the four largest glass companies in the world alongside another Japanese company Asahi Glass, Saint-Gobain, and Guardian Industries.
LG Display is one of the world's largest manufacturers and supplier of thin-film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panels, OLEDs and flexible displays. LG Display is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, and currently operates nine fabrication facilities and seven back-end assembly facilities in Korea, China, Poland and Mexico.
SGL Carbon SE is a European company based in Germany. It is one of the world's leading manufacturers of products from carbon.
This is a partial list of notable price fixing and bid rigging cases.
HannStar Display Corporation is a Taiwan-based technology company, primarily involved in the research and production of monitors, notebook displays, and televisions.
Arthur Ulens is a Belgian businessman and former head of AGC Flat Glass which groups the worldwide flat glass activities of the Asahi Glass Company (AGC).
American Natural Soda Ash Corporation (ANSAC) operates as the international distribution arm for three US manufacturers of natural soda ash produced from trona deposits in Green River, Wyoming, the trade name for sodium carbonate Na2CO3, is an essential raw material used in the manufacture of glass, detergents, and several sodium-based chemicals.
Samsung SDI Co., Ltd. is a battery and electronic materials manufacturer headquartered in Yongin, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. Samsung SDI operates its business with Energy Solutions and Electronic Materials segment. The Energy Solution segment manufactures rechargeable batteries used for IT device, automotive, and Energy Storage System (ESS) applications, and the Electronic Materials segment produces materials for semiconductors and displays. In the first half of 2022, Samsung SDI is ranked sixth in the world with a market share of 5 percent according to SNE research. In 2022, Samsung SDI started to build pilot line for solid-state batteries in the South Korean city of Suwon and began its first production from the very line in 2023.
Asahi India Glass Limited, known as AIS, is a glass solutions and manufacturing company in India. It was established in 1984. It manufactures automotive safety glass, float glass, architectural processed glass, and glass products. It also provides consumer glass offerings in the form of Glasxperts and Windshield Experts. AIS was established as a Joint Venture agreement between Mr. BM Labroo and family, Asahi Glass Co. Ltd., Japan, and Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. In the Indian passenger car glass segment, AIS has 77.1% market share as of 2017. AIS also holds 20% market share in India’s architectural glass segment as of 2017.
The TFT-LCD Antitrust Litigation was a United States class-action lawsuit regarding the worldwide conspiracy to coordinate the prices of Thin-Film Transistor-Liquid Crystal Display (TFT-LCD) panels, which are used to make laptop computers, computer monitors and televisions, between 1999 and 2006. In March 2010, Judge Susan Illston certified two nationwide classes of persons and entities that directly and indirectly purchased TFT-LCDs – for panel purchasers and purchasers of TFT-LCD integrated products; the litigation was followed by multiple suits.
