CMA Issues Fines of over £9m for Roofing Lead Cartel

THE CMA HAS imposed final fines totalling more than £9m on two of the UK’s largest suppliers of rolled lead, for breaking competition law.

Following an investigation into suspected cartel conduct, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found that Hertfordshire-based firms, Associated Lead Mills Ltd (ALM) and H.J. Enthoven Ltd (trading as BLM British Lead), had broken the law by entering into anticompetitive arrangements.

Both firms admitted their roles in the illegal cartel earlier this year and now face fines of £1.5m and £8m respectively.

Calder Lead

Previously, the CMA had provisionally found that a third company, Calder Industrial Materials Ltd, had become involved at a later stage in one of the arrangements.

The CMA has now decided that there are no grounds for action in respect of this firm. The CMA has therefore closed its investigation in relation to this company.

The CMA’s findings follow a thorough review of the evidence, including the written and oral representations submitted by the businesses.

Rolled lead is an important product for the UK construction industry, used mainly for roofing. ALM and BLM are two of the largest suppliers in the market.

Lead Cartel arrangements

The four anti-competitive arrangements took place between October 2015 and April 2017.

They were:

• colluding on prices,
• sharing the rolled lead market by arranging not to target certain customers,
• arranging not to supply a new business because it risked disrupting the firms’ existing customer relationships
• exchanges of commercially sensitive information.

The final fines for each of the firms are ALM: £1,510,228 and BLM: £8,076,504. ALM and BLM were given reduced fines as they admitted their guilt.

Inflating prices and cheating customers

Michael Grenfell, Executive Director of Enforcement at the CMA, said: “These companies knowingly entered into illegal arrangements restricting competition between them. Such anticompetitive arrangements tend to inflate prices and cheat customers out of a fair deal. The CMA does not tolerate such behaviour.

“Construction is a sector firmly under our spotlight and if businesses break the law by entering into anticompetitive arrangements, they run the risk of large fines.”

The decision made by the CMA relates to the companies found directly involved in breaking competition law or those liable as parent companies. The guilty companies are:

Associated Lead Mills Limited, Royston Sheet Lead Limited (previously Jamestown Metals Limited) (along with their parent company International Metal Industries Limited); and

H.J. Enthoven Limited, trading as BLM British Lead, (along with its parent company Eco-Bat Technologies Limited).