Dow Appeals $1.1 Billion Isocyanates Cartel Fine

Dow Chemical has asked the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a $1.1 billion fine imposed by a district court in Kansas City, Kansas, in connection with an alleged price-fixing cartel for polyurethane feedstocks MDI, TDI and polyester polyols.

In February of this year, a jury slapped the U.S. chemical giant with a fine of $400 million, and reports say the court took advantage of U.S. monopoly laws allowing the penalty to be tripled. Some $140 million was subsequently shaved off the end figure.

In a note to the court, Dow, the only player to go to court in the suit brought by customers in the foam industry and covering the period 1999 to 2004, pointed out that it had consistently denied any wrongdoing.

The other isocyanates producers investigated - BASF Corporation, the U.S. arm of Bayer MaterialScience and Huntsman - accepted fines in the double-digit dollar range. LyondellBasell, which was in Chapter 11 insolvency proceedings at the time, paid nothing.

Downstream of the alleged isocyanates price fixing, some of the foamers involved in the suit were themselves embroiled in cartel proceedings.