Norris v Government of the United States of America
Price fixing was not a criminal offence in English law before the cartel offence was introduced in 2003, and could not be treated as a conspiracy to defraud merely because it involved secret agreements.
Facts
Mr Norris, the former chief executive of Morgan Crucible, was indicted in the United States for price fixing in the market for carbon products, and for obstruction of justice. The United States requested his extradition. Extradition required that the conduct would have been a criminal offence in the United Kingdom at the time. The question was whether price fixing, before the cartel offence was introduced by the Enterprise Act 2002, was a common law conspiracy to defraud.
Legal principle
The House of Lords held that price fixing, without more, was not a criminal offence under English law at the relevant time. The court said that there was no authority for the proposition that a cartel agreement, without aggravating features such as fraud or misrepresentation, amounted to a conspiracy to defraud, and that Parliament, when it introduced the cartel offence, had proceeded on the basis that price fixing was not already a crime. Mr Norris could therefore not be extradited for price fixing, but the case was sent back on the obstruction of justice charges, and he was later extradited and convicted on those charges.
Related cases on investigations, cartels and penalties
- A Menarini Diagnostics SRL v Italy (2011) Application no 43509/08
- Akzo Nobel Chemicals Ltd v Commission Case C-550/07 P, [2010] ECR I-8301
- AM & S Europe Ltd v Commission Case 155/79, [1982] ECR 1575
- Hoechst AG v Commission Joined Cases 46/87 and 227/88, [1989] ECR 2859
- Orkem SA v Commission Case 374/87, [1989] ECR 3283
- Pfleiderer AG v Bundeskartellamt Case C-360/09, [2011] ECR I-5161
- Vantaan kaupunki v Skanska Industrial Solutions Oy Case C-724/17, EU:C:2019:204
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