Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Key definition

Cartel definition

What does Cartel mean? In legal practice, a cartel is coordination between competing undertakings to restrict competition, typically price-fixing, rigged bids (collusive tenders), limiting output or setting quotas, or sharing/dividing markets by allocating customers, suppliers, territories or lines of trade. It may take the form of an agreement, decision or concerted practice, including exchanges of commercially sensitive information that align market behaviour. In UK civil competition law this conduct infringes the Chapter I prohibition in the Competition Act 1998; in Ireland it infringes section 4 of the Competition Act 2002 and, where applicable, Article 101 TFEU. The term is a descriptive label...

EU General Court upholds North Sea shrimps cartel fines; admissibility of privately recorded evidence confirmed; ‘inability to pay’ fine reductions exceptional (T‑54/14, 8 Sept 2016)

Published by a LexisNexis Competition expert

Practice notes

CASE HUB ARCHIVED

– This archived case hub sets out the position as at the judgment dated 8 September 2016; it is not being maintained. See also: timeline, commentary and relevant/related cases.

Case facts

Outline

An appeal was lodged before the General Court seeking annulment and/or a reduction of the fines arising from the Commission’s decision of 27 November 2013, which found a breach of article 101 TFEU and imposed a €27.08m penalty on Heiploeg for its alleged role in a price‑fixing and market‑sharing cartel in the North Sea shrimps sector (“North Sea Shrimps cartel”). On 8 September 2016, the General Court dismissed the action in its entirety.

The case also raises, amongst other matters, issues concerning addressees’ “inability to pay” and the admissibility, in the administrative procedure, of covert (possibly unlawful) recordings that later came into the Commission’s hands during unannounced inspections.

Parties

Applicants:

Goldfish BV
Heiploeg BV
Heiploeg Beheer BV
Heiploeg Holding BV (collectively, Heiploeg)

Defendant: European Commission

Heiploeg trades North Sea shrimps and other seafood products throughout Europe...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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