2nd UPDATE: EU Court Annuls Some Fines On Gas Insulated Switchgear Cartel

A European Court has annulled fines imposed by the European Commission on Japanese companies Mitsubishi Electric Corp. (6503.TO) and Toshiba Corp. (6502.TO) for participating in a cartel of gas-insulated switchgear products.

The fines, which were handed down in 2007, were for EUR118.6 million and EUR90.9 million respectively.

However, the General Court, the European Union's second highest court, also confirmed the EUR50.4 million imposed on Hitachi Ltd. (HIT), it said in a statement.

The court upheld the commission's decision that the companies participated in a cartel, but annulled some of the fines because the commission used the wrong method in calculating them, it said.

"In so far as the commission did not use the same reference year for Mitsubishi Electric and Toshiba [for which it used 2001] and the European undertakings [for which it used 2003], the court finds that the commission did not treat the Japanese producers and the European producers equally. The commission infringed the principle of equal treatment and annuls the fines imposed on the two companies concerned," it said in the statement.

In March, the same court upheld a EUR397 million fine levied against German conglomerate Siemens AG (SI) for having operated in the same cartel, but it reduced penalties imposed on Siemens Austria subsidiaries and on French power generation firm Alstom S.A. (ALO.FR) and nuclear giant Areva S.A. (AREVA.FR)

Gas insulated switchgear is heavy electrical equipment used to regulate electricity flows within power grids. It is a major component of power substations, where electrical current is converted from high to low voltage, or vice-versa.

-By Alessandro Torello, Dow Jones Newswires; +32 2 741 14 88; alessandro.torello@dowjones.com

Mitsubishi Electric (PK) (USOTC:MIELY)
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