Nippon Sheet's Pilkington to appeal cartel penalty

Japan's major glass maker, Nippon Sheet Glass Co (5202.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), said on Tuesday its British unit, Pilkington, would appeal a 370 million euro ($507 million) cartel penalty imposed by the European Commission.

Nippon Sheet Glass, which makes sheet glass for cars and buildings, said in a statement it would keep unchanged its earnings guidance for this year, which allows for the penalty, as it expected any court decision on the appeal to come after that ends in March.

The European Commission imposed on Nov 12 its highest ever cartel penalty, fining four companies more than 1.3 billion euros for illegally working trogether in the European car glass market between 1998 and 2003 [ID:nLC80467].

Among the alleged cartel members, French building materials group Saint-Gobain (SGOB.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) was fined 896 million euros, the biggest such EU penalty on an individual company. ($1=.7296 Euro)