Christie’s and Sotheby’s, the two biggest names in fine art auctions, each face being fined at least 10-million euros by the European Commission for fixing their fees during the 1990s, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Friday.
A final decision on the fines will be taken on Wednesday by the European Union’s 20 commissioners — some of whom are calling for a far higher penalty, according to the business daily’s front page story.
The FT said Sotheby’s and the Commission declined to comment when contacted on Thursday by the paper while Christie’s was unavailable to give its response.
The EU’s executive branch claimed in April that the two firms might have violated EU antitrust legislation by colluding to fix commission fees and other terms of sale between 1993 and 2000. Last December in the United States, a Manhattan jury convicted Sotheby’s main shareholder and former chairman Alfred Taubman of entering into a price-fixing agreement with Christie’s.
Prosecutors said that arrangement had cost clients of both firms $400-million.
Christie’s was not prosecuted in the United States after its management agreed to testify against Sotheby’s and provide documents needed to prove fraudulent intent. – Sapa-AFP