Coalition Against BAYER Dangers (Germany)
Press Release, June 2, 2006

BAYER charged with cartel offences:
”Those responsible should be behind bars”

The Coalition Against BAYER Dangers (CBG) has filed charges against the Board Chairman of the BAYER corporation, Werner Wenning, with the Cologne Public Prosecutor. The association accuses the manager of tolerating or orchestrating the participation of the company in illegal price-fixing.

During the last few years BAYER has been convicted in a multitude of cases involving cartel offences. In the last financial year alone, the company had to pay EUR 275 million in fines. “We are talking about sums of several hundreds of millions in these cartel arrangements. It is unthinkable that decisions of this magnitude were taken without the knowledge of the Chairman. Only when the responsible directors fear custodial sentences can a deterrent effect be assumed”, according to Philipp Mimkes from CBG. The Coalition Against BAYER Dangers believes that the majority of illegal price fixing remains undiscovered. “It is consumers and taxpayers who pay the bill”, continues Mimkes. “It is unacceptable that those responsible for fraud worth millions are not criminally prosecuted”.

Eberhard Reinecke, CBG`s lawyer: “The great extent of such cartel arrangements and the precautions taken with the accounting prove that there is a systematic business policy at work here. The Chairman of Bayer AG is therefore guilty of embezzlement.”

On the political level there have recently been efforts to bring those responsible in the company to justice. The EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes assesses private lawsuits against cartels as a central means of fighting illegal price-fixing. After imposing a EUR 58 million fine on BAYER Kroes stated that “cartels are a scourge. I will ensure that cartels will continue to be tracked down, prosecuted and punished. With this latest decision, I am sending a very strong message to company boards that cartels will not be tolerated, and to shareholders that they should look carefully at how their companies are being run.”

Recent cartels involving Bayer:
EU Commission fines four firms €75.86 million for rubber chemical cartel
BAYER CORPORATION AGREES TO PLEAD GUILTY TO PARTICIPATING IN A CHEMICAL ADDITIVE CARTEL
Former Top Bayer Executives Indicted in Price-Fixing Conspiracy
Bayer, Roche, ADM: EU COMMISSION FINES FIVE COMPANIES IN CITRIC ACID CARTEL
Bayer AG Agrees to Plead Guilty and Pay $66 Million Fine for Rubber Cartel

Please also see the charge brought against BAYER by CBG (sorry, only German)

Coalition against BAYER Dangers
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Advisory Board
Prof. Juergen Junginger, designer, Krefeld,
Prof. Dr. Juergen Rochlitz, chemist, former member of the Bundestag, Burgwald
Wolfram Esche, attorney, Cologne
Dr. Sigrid Mueller, pharmacologist, Bremen
Eva Bulling-Schroeter, member of the Bundestag, Berlin
Prof. Dr. Anton Schneider, biologist, Neubeuern
Dorothee Soelle, theologian, Hamburg (died 2003)
Dr. Janis Schmelzer, historian, Berlin
Dr. Erika Abczynski, pediatrician, Dormagen

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