Company seeks compensation for Irish Sugar’s trade practices

A SUGAR company is seeking multi-million-euro damages, including punitive and aggravated damages, for losses allegedly sustained as a result of Irish Sugar plc’s abuse of a dominant market position during the 1990s.

Gempack Foods Ltd (GFL), which was established in 1992, sustained the losses over the years 1993 to 1999 as a result of various abuses by Irish Sugar, the High Court was told yesterday.

Once the abuses were halted by the European Commission, Gempack’s business came back on track and it now employs 69 people, turning over €28.7m, Brian Murray SC, for the firm said.

Counsel was opening GFL’s action before Mr Justice Liam McKechnie which is expected to run for four weeks.

The action arises following the commission’s 1997 finding that Irish Sugar, which then had more than a 95% share of the Irish market, abused its dominant position in the 1980s and 1990s by engaging in practices such as selective pricing and price discrimination against competing sugar packers.

The court was told it would hear evidence from buyers for the major retailers, including Dunnes Stores, about how these prevented retailers taking up the Gempack product, counsel said.

Irish Sugar denies the claims and also pleads the action is outside legal time limits. It does not accept for the purpose of the case to be bound by the findings of the commission decision and denies it is answerable in law for firms allegedly associated with it.