L 15224 Official Journal of the European Communities 7.6.2001 COMMISSION DECISION of 7 June 2000 relating to a proceeding pursuant to Article 81 of the EC Treaty and Article 53 of the EEA Agreement (Case COMP/36.545/F3 — Amino Acids) (notified under document number C(2000) 1565) (Only the German, English and French texts are authentic) (Text with EEA relevance) (2001/418/EC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to the Agreement on the European Economic Area, Having regard to Council Regulation No 17 of 6 February 1962, First Regulation implementing Articles 85 and 86 of the Treaty (!) as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 12161999 (3, Having regard to the Commission decision of 29 October 1998 to open a proceeding in this case, Having given the undertakings concerned the opportunity to make known their views on the objections raised by the Commission pursuant to Article 19(1) of Regulation No 17, Commission Regulation No 99/63/EEC of 25 July 1963 on the hearings provided for in Article 19(1) and (2) of Council Regulation No 17 (}), and subsequently Commission Regulation (EC) No 2842/98 of 22 December 1998 on the hearing of parties in certain proceedings under Articles 85 and 86 of the EC Treaty (%), After consulting the Advisory Committee on Restrictive Practices and Dominant Positions, WHEREAS: I. THE FACTS A. SUBJECT OF PROCEEDINGS (1) This case concerns agreements on prices, sales volumes and the exchange of firm specific information on sales () OJ 13, 21.2.1962, p. 204/62. () OJ L 148, 15.6.1999, p. 5. () 0J 127, 20.8.1963, p. 2268/63. () OJ L 354, 30.12.1998, p. 18. volumes of undertakings, producing and offering for sale synthetic lysine to distributors andfor industrial users established in the EEA, for the use in animal feeds. The present Decision covers the period September 1990 to June 1995. B. THE UNDERTAKINGS AND THE ASSOCIATION CONCERNED 1. Archer Daniels Midland Company Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) is the ultimate parent company of a group of companies processing cereals and oil seeds worldwide. Worldwide ADM has over 200 plants including substantial assets in the EEA, among which are the world's largest soya bean processing facility in Europoort, the Netherlands, the world's largest multi-seed complex in Hamburg, Germany, and the world's largest soft-seed crushing plant in Erith, United Kingdom. ADM is a manufacturer of starch and starch products and entered into the biochemicals market because they expected higher returns from the production of chemicals based on starch products than on their traditional products. ADM's BioProducts Division was formed in 1989. At about that time, ADM's management decided to start producing lysine when it became aware that two other undertakings were about to set up production facilities in North America (but both undertakings gave up on ADM's expansion announcement). ADM's production facilities for lysine were completed in June 1992. Archer Daniels Midland Ingredients Ltd (ADM Ingredients) is a wholly owned subsidiary of ADM, dealing with ADM's European amino acids business during the period covered by the present investigation.