CHILE – As reported by Estrategia and cited by Masisa, Metalúrgica Silcosil Limitada (Silcosil) withdrew the appeal to the Supreme Court against the ruling of the Fair Trade Tribunal (TDLC) that acquitted Masisa S.A. (Masisa) and Masisa Componentes SpA (Components).

Previously the TDLC had acquitted Masisa and its Components subsidiary on the grounds that the defendants lacked a dominant position in the relevant markets, so they could not have committed the imputed bad practices.

The suit was presented by Silcosil in early 2015 and requested the imposition of fines for USD 16 million to each of the firms (Masisa and Components). After the TDLC rejected the lawsuit, Silcosil had appealed to the Supreme Court to overturn the decision of the antimonopoly body.

In its judgment, the TDLC held that the dispute involved two relevant markets: the production and marketing of melamine particleboard panels (upstream); and that relative to designing, manufacturing and marketing furniture ready to assemble (RTA) based on the aforementioned boards (downstream). The Court determined that given the low market share of Components in the downstream market, the existence of predatory pricing behavior or unfair competition was ruled out.

With regard to the allocation of strangling margins, the Court held that there was no dominant market position upstream since boards from different producers are substitutable; the market share of Masisa had decreased considerably in recent years; and imports of this material set the limit ceiling prices that can be charged on the market. Finally, the TDLC said that the allegation of cross-subsidization is not in itself a behavior that attempts against free competition, so it was not analyzed as such.