Plastics bag cartel fined
The European Commission has fined 16 firms €290.71M for operating a cartel in the plastic industrial bags market. British Polythene Industries and Belgium's Combipac BV escaped being penalised, however, after they tipped off the Commission about the cartel, which covered Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Spain.
Another UK firm, Low & Bonar , was less lucky, being fined €12.24M along with Dutch partner company, Bonar Technical Fabrics. The Commission said the cartel participants "agreed amongst themselves on prices and sales quotas by geographical area, shared the orders of large customers, organised collusive bidding for invitations to tender and exchanged information on their sales volumes, to the detriment of competition, their customers and consumers". Other fined companies included UPM-Kymmene Oy (€56.55M); and Nordfolien GmbH plus Nordenia International AG (sharing €39.10).
ECJ strawberry scent trademark case
A French perfume and clothing company has failed at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to trademark the "smell of ripe strawberries" for use on packaging but only because judges deemed this insufficiently precise to serve as a unique identifier. Eden SARL, of Paris, cited a previous case where the ECJ had ruled non-visual signs, such as sounds or odours, could become trademarks "provided that they can be represented graphically" in packaging designs.
However, opening the way for potential, more precise claims to trademark rights over smells, the court found strawberries can "have a different smell according to their variety", meaning it would be impossible to "identify 'the olfactory sign' with clarity and precision." Judges added Eden's proposed graphical sign (of a strawberry) could not be trademarked as it did not adequately depict ripe strawberries.
