De Beers Hopes to Resolve Antitrust Issue
Rob Bates -- JCK Online, 4/1/2001 3:00:00 AM
De Beers wants its American law firm to find a way to settle its antitrust problems, London's Daily Telegraph reported recently.
The newspaper reported that the company will "make some movement" toward solving the dispute, which last flared up in 1996 when the Justice Department indicted General Electric and De Beers for industrial diamond price fixing. De Beers never answered the charges, arguing that it was not under U.S. jurisdiction. As a result, charges against De Beers are still pending, and De Beers executives never travel to the United States, even though the case against GE was thrown out of court.
De Beers spokesman Roger van Eeghen says De Beers' efforts are nothing new. "We've been very clear that the U.S. is the main consumer market, and we would like to be able to operate in the U.S," he says.
