Italy´s antitrust authority (IAA) has said that it is to fine Swedish packaging company Tetra Pak International (S-22186 Lund; www.tetrapak.com) EUR 95m for contravening the terms of a ban it had imposed in August 1993 barring Tetra Pak from acquiring control over Italian competitor Italpack. Tetra Pak has said that it is to appeal against the decision, saying in a statement that “there has been no breach of the prohibition decision”.

The IAA imposed the ban in 1993 because the acquisition would have strengthened Tetra Pak´s dominant position in the aseptic and non-aseptic packaging markets. IAA launched an investigation in April 2004 and now alleges that, despite the acquisition of Italpack by Eaglepack (a company with no links to Tetra Pak), Tetra Pak had acquired a de facto control over Italpack which was exercised through a series of supply relationships.

Tetra Pak insists that the supply relationship was of a non-exclusive nature and annually renewable for both parties – it therefore could not constitute control of Italpack. In addition, Tetra Pak says that before the 1993 decision it had established a supply agreement with Italpack that was at “arm´s length” and with normal terms and conditions. The company says that the supply relationship did not include any of the characteristics of the so-called “de facto control”, as defined by the IAA.