Search Results for: Switzerland

BY DEIRDRE MASON
IT may never equal the four-fold rise in the price of a barrel of crude oil that took place between 1973 and 1974, but this year’s hike to more than US$60 a barrel has given all those industries dependent on the stability of fuel prices a severe shock, and the aviation industry is one of those reeling from the increases.…

KEITH NUTHALL
FINAL appeals by a group of district heating pipe companies to overturn massive fines levied by the European Commission for participating in a cartel have been rejected by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). Dansk Rørindustri, and LR af 1998, of Denmark; Isoplus Fernwärmetechnik Vertriebsgesellschaft, Isoplus Fernwärmetechnik, Brugg Rohrsysteme, and LR af 1998 (Deutschland), of Germany; Isoplus Fernwärmetechnik Gesellschaft, and KE KELIT Kunststoffwerk, of Austria; and Switzerland’s ABB Asea Brown Boveri Ltd, were appealing against a 2002 ECJ Court of First Instance judgment.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and MONICA DOBIE
A EUROPEAN Union (EU)-sponsored research project has been launched to create practical cell-factories producing a genetically-modified haemogoblin, the key element of blood that carries oxygen around the body. The Euro Blood Substitutes initiative wants to use ‘Aspergillus niger’ fungus and ‘Escherichia coli’ bacteria to create super-charged haem proteins, helping create reliable supplies of alternative blood products.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is spending Euro 1.1 million on creating a sophisticated high-technology monitoring network for the Alps, aimed at helping local emergency services manage, reduce and mitigate the risks posed by avalanches, landslides and floods. Such natural disasters have the potential to be immensely destructive in Alpine regions, foisting heavy bills upon insurers, but the Commission’s ASSIST project is designed to reduce such physical and financial damage.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A HEAVY fine levied by the European Commission on Germany’s SGL Carbon for participating in a cartel on the speciality graphite market has been reduced from Euro 27.75 million to Euro 18.45 million. Following an appeal against the fine, the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) Court of First Instance has confirmed that SGL and three other companies should be fined for market fixing; however, it said Brussels’ “was manifestly incorrect” when calculating the German company’s fines.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE SURVEILLANCE Authority of the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) has launched its own competition inquiry into business insurance services, in parallel with the investigation launched earlier this month by the European Commission. The EFTA probe will examine whether there are competition problems requiring immediate legal action or long-term reforms within the business insurance sectors of its member states Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A HEAVYWEIGHT European international consortium will spend Euro 20 million on trying to develop commercially-viable flat plastic light sources, that could be moulded to fit spaces in homes and offices. The OLLA project (‘high brightness Organic Light-emitting diodes for information technology and Lighting Applications’) aims to build on basic research into these materials.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has thwarted an attempt by pharmaceutical manufacturers to crush a legal technicality that has prevented them enjoying full supplementary patent protection rights across the European Union (EU). The problem arose when Novartis AG and Cor Therapeutics Inc (now Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc.)…

BY ALAN OSBORN
ACCORDING to global consumption figures, Israel is the world capital of teenage soft drink demand, with hot weather combined with a competitive market to create something of a utopia for drinks companies. An international survey of soft drinks consumption published by the Economist by 15 year olds of both sexes suggests that Israel has the world’s biggest teenage consumers of carbonated and still drinks, colas, sodas, juices and the like on a per capita basis.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN INTERNATIONAL Task Force on Commodity Risk Management (ITF) is to expand the use of innovative market mechanisms to manage the risk posed by the volatile pricing to key small-scale producers of certain foodstuffs in developing countries. The World Bank-associated body wants to stabilise production in commodity markets such as cocoa, cotton, coffee, wheat, soybeans and corn, where from 1983-2003, prices of many commodities have fluctuated from below 50% to above 150% of their average prices.…