EU: EC closes antitrust investigation into ethanol firms

According to Argus Media the European Commission has closed an antitrust investigation that involved unannounced inspections of premises of ethanol producers and trading companies in April 2015.

A spokesperson for the EC said that the closure of this investigation will not prevent the Commission from opening the case again should the case merit it.

Caudet added the EC needed to “focus its limited resources on the cases that promise the greatest merit from a public enforcement perspective.”

While the EC investigation does not name the companies involved, premises belonging to Spanish producer Abengoa and French trading company Tereos were raided by antitrust regulators in April 2015.

The former producer is also being probed as a part of a separate ongoing EC investigation into the potential manipulation ethanol benchmarks published by a price reporting agency.

Full Content: Argus Media

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