The European Commission is stepping up legal action against several glass manufacturers that it suspects have been operating an illegal cartel.

Yesterday, it gave the companies, which include Pilkington, two months to reply to the charge that they had fixed prices for flat glass, mainly used for windows.

The latest move follows a series of raids by the Commission on companies in Belgium, Germany, France, Sweden and the UK in February 2005. At the time, it said it had reason to believe the companies “may have coordinated price increases and agreed on the introduction of an energy surcharge in the area of flat glass”.

The Commission refused to identify companies involved yesterday, but Pilkington and Belgium’s Glaverbel both confirmed they had received the statement of objections.

The British firm said this related to “alleged violations of competition rules by a number of glass manufacturers in the European building products glass sector”.

The Commission said that it had received information from a leniency programme which reduces or exempts from fines companies that voluntarily provide details of wrongdoing.

Jonathan Todd, the Commission’s competition policy spokesman, defended the length of time between the launch of the investigation and the formal presentation of antitrust charges. “These investigations are often complicated. It is not unusual for there to be a delay of two years between the opening of the investigation and the sending of the statement of objections,” he said.

He also confirmed that a parallel investigation into a possible car glass cartel, which had involved dawn raids two years ago, was “ongoing”.

After weighing up the companies’ defences, the Commission will decide whether they operated an illegal cartel or not. If it finds they did, it can fine them up to 10 per cent of their world-wide annual turnover.

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