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COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION

of 4 February 1985

amending recommendation No 1835/81/ECSC on the obligation to publish price lists and conditions of sale and on prohibited practices in the steel trade

(85/122/ECSC)

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN

COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community, and in particular Article 63 (3) thereof,

Whereas:

Member States were required by the provisions of Commission recommendation No 1835/81/ECSC (1), as last amended by recommendation No 1946/84/ECSC (2), to ensure that steel distributive undertakings, from 1 January 1983 to 31 December 1985, complied with rules on publication of prices and conditions of sale and on prohibited practices in the steel trade.

The following in particular were not required to comply with these rules:

(i) 'intermediate' steel dealers who buy exclusively from other Community dealers, irrespective of their resale figures;

(ii) dealers of all kinds whose annual resale figures, including those of their subsidiary companies or branches, amount to less than 3 000 tonnes of special steels or 6 000 tonnes of all steels.

Whilst the aforementioned steel dealers, whose individual importance is limited but whose effect on the market should be taken into account in view of their number, do not normally play a major role in the market; however, experience has shown that - as a result of their freedom of action - the activities of small stockholders or intermediate dealers have had a crucial influence on the price levels of certain categories or qualities of steel in a number of regions of the Community where imbalances in the market and in the steel trade have been observed.

It is therefore appropriate that such a significant number of steel dealers, whose actions may have a detrimental effect on prices and give rise to discrimination, should no longer be exempt from the rules in questions.

It is important for the stability of the steel market, for which 1985 is a crucial year, that all steel dealers be henceforward covered by the rules in force.

However, all small stockholders need not be obliged to comply with all the rules imposed hitherto on larger dealers; some small stockholders may be exempted from the obligation to publish prices and conditions of sale where the prices they charge are necessarily linked, with an appropriate margin, to the prices published by the dealers and producers who supply them.

Care should also be taken not to subject small stockholders to administrative requirements disproportionate to their usual operating and management procedures. Likewise, the relevant departments in the Member States responsible for implementing recommendation No 1835/81/ECSC should not be unduly burdened. Moreover, the scope of that recommendation should be limited to undertakings or bodies which usually carry out distribution activities other than sales to domestic consumers or the craft sector.

It is sufficient to require dealers not obliged to publish prices and conditions of sale to have their own price lists to prove that prices have been charged in accordance with Articles 8 to 15 of recommendation No 1835/81/ECSC and to show that they have not made discriminatory sales by applying dissimilar conditions to comparable transactions; similarly, a steel dealer who aligns his prices on an offer from a dealer who is not obliged to publish must show that the conditions for alignment obtained and that such alignment has been imposed by the effective competition of that dealer.

HAS ADOPTED THIS RECOMMENDATION:

Article 1

Recommendation No 1835/81/ECSC is hereby amended as follows:

1. Article 2 (1) is replaced by the following:

'1. This recommendation shall be applicable to distributive undertakings in the Community which effect, on their own account, direct and/or ex-stock sales, within the common market, of the steel products defined in Annex I to the Treaty, with the exception of scrap, provided that:

- they are not selling agencies as defined in Decision No 30-53 (1), as amended by Decision No 1834/81/ECSC (2);

or

- they regularly exercise a distribution activity other than sales to domestic consumers or the craft trades,

hereinafter called "steel dealers".

(1) OJ ECSC, 4. 5. 1953, p. 109.

(2) OJ No L 184, 4. 7. 1981, p. 7.'

2. Article 2 (3) is deleted and paragraph 4 becomes paragraph 3.

3. Article 3 is replaced by the following:

'Article 3

'1. Steel dealers whose sales figures between 1 January and 31 December 1984 were at least 2 000 tonnes of special steels or at least 4 000 tonnes of all steels shall be obliged to publish price lists and conditions of sale in respect of direct and ex-stock sales in accordance with the provisions laid down in Articles 4 to 8 and to communicate them to an administrative department designated by the Member State.

A parent steel-trading company may publish price lists and conditions of sale which are also valid for its subsidiary companies and branches.

2. Steel dealers who are not obliged to publish price lists and conditions of sale because they do not meet the conditions set out in paragraph 1 are none the less required to draw up their own price lists and to make them available to the department designated by the Member State for the purpose of the checks provided for in Article 15.'

Article 2

Member States shall take the necessary measures to comply with this recommendation not later than 1 March 1985. They shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof.

Article 3

This recommendation is addressed to the Member States.

Done at Brussels, 4 February 1985.

For the Commission

Karl-Heinz NARJES

Vice-President

(1) OJ No L 184, 4. 7. 1981, p. 9.

(2) OJ No L 180, 7. 7. 1984, p. 28.