2002/244/EC: Commission Decision of 14 March 2000 declaring a concentration to be compatible with the common market and the EEA Agreement Case COMP/M.1663 — Alcan/Alusuisse (Text with EEA relevance.)(notified under document number C(2000) 694)

• Articles: 3

Article 1

On condition that the undertakings summarised in recitals 127 to 145 and set out in detail in the Annex are fully complied with, the concentration by which Alcan Aluminium Limited ("Alcan") acquires, within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of Regulation (EEC) No 4064/89, control of Alusuisse Lonza Group AG ("Alusuisse") is declared compatible with the common market and the functioning of the EEA Agreement.

Article 2

This Decision is addressed to:

Alcan Aluminium Limited

1188 Sherbrooke Street West

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Mr David Ausland

Executive Vice-President

Done at Brussels, 14 March 2000.

For the Commission

Mario Monti

Member of the Commission

(1) OJ L 395, 30.12.1989, p. 1; corrigendum OJ L 257, 21.9.1990, p. 13.

(2) OJ L 180, 9.7.1997, p. 1; corrigendum OJ L 40, 13.2.1998, p. 17.

(3) OJ C 82, 5.4.2000.

(4) Turnover calculated in accordance with Article 5(1) of the Merger Regulation and the Commission Notice on the calculation of turnover (OJ C 66, 2.3.1998, p. 25). To the extent that figures include turnover for the period before 1.1.1999, they are calculated on the basis of average ECU exchange rates and translated into EUR on a one-for-one basis.

(5) Primary aluminium is a commodity which is traded at the London Metal Exchange (LME). A daily quotation, the LME price, is fixed there reflecting the supply and demand for primary aluminium.

(6) Refers to thermodynamic stability.

(7) Alcoa/Alumix (Case IV/M.675, Decision of 21 December 1995; OJ C 121, 25.4.1996, p. 14); Alcoa/Inespal (Case IV/M.1003, Decision of 24 October 1997; OJ C 29, 27.1.1998, p. 7); VAW/Reynolds Metals (Case IV/M.1110, Decision of 19 May 1998; OJ C 211, 7.7.1998, p. 17).

(8) There is another rolling mill joint venture between Alcan and ARCO in Logan, USA. However, this is not comparable to Norf in many respects. First, ARCO has divested its aluminium activities and the Logan mill is only managed by Alcan; secondly, the Logan mill is much smaller in scale and therefore less complicated to operate than Norf (Norf is the largest aluminium mill in the world); and thirdly, Logan can only produce can body and end stock and, therefore, even if it were jointly run, it would not entail such a complex management of two different competitive product mixes.

(9) OJ C 114, 24.4.1993, p. 5.

Schedules & Appendices

ANNEX

The full original text of the conditions and obligations referred to in Article 1 may be consulted on the following Commission website: http://europa.eu.int/comm/competition/index_en.html