COMPETITION: FRENCH FEDERATIONS GRANTED REPRIEVE ON BEEF FINES

摘要

Four French farmers' federations and one slaughterers' association have been given a reprieve on the payment of fines handed down by the European Commission on April 2, 2003 for illegal price fixing in the beef sector. The Court of First Instance published an Order on January 21 (cases T-217/03 R, 7-252/03 R, T-245103 R) that will give the farmers' groups an extra five months and the abattoirs a further two months to pay, after they argued that paying the fines would push them into insolvency. Nonetheless, they will still have to pay a part of the fine in the next three to four weeks, or at least give a bank guarantee for part of the sum due.