Romania: Holcim is mulling its options after the European Union's (EU) top court dismissed its lawsuit against the European Commission (EC) over the theft of 1.6 million emissions allowances in 2010.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) on 18 Sept 2014 rejected Holcim's arguments that the EC should compensate it for Euro17.6m for damages suffered when the online carbon trading account of its Romanian subsidiary was hacked. In its judgment, the court ruled that Holcim must bear the losses resulting from the thefts and pay the EC's legal costs in the case, which were not disclosed.
"Holcim has taken note of the General Court's judgement," said a Holcim sposewoman. "We are currently analysing the decision in more detail and cannot comment any further."
In November 2010 cyber criminals hacked into Holcim's account at the Romanian emissions trading registry - previously one of around 30 online trading hubs in the EU carbon market - and transferred 1.6 million s-called EU allowances to two accounts at the Italian and Liechtenstein registries. According to EU records, the allowances then passed through registry accounts in the UK, France, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic within hours, before eventually being sold on emissions exchanges in Paris and Amsterdam.
Around 695,000 allowances were later returned to Holcim by various European authorities, but the company's spokeswoman said that the remaining units have still not been recovered.
Holcim sued the EC, which administers the bloc's electronic emissions trading network, in 2012 for failing to freeze the accounts containing the stolen units, for not returning them and for allowing other companies to turn them in for compliance under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). The EC refused to reveal the location of the allowances, saying that under EU law the details were confidential and could only be passed to European authorities.
Several European companies including International Power and ScottishPower have since surrendered some of the units to comply with the ETS, but claimed that they bought them in good faith, without knowing that they had been reported stolen.
Holcim had claimed that the EU should pay it the value of any allowances still missing, based on the market price on 16 November 2010 (the day of the theft) plus annual interest of 8%. That amounts to more than Euro17.6m, based on a spot allowance price of Euro14.60/unit.
Holcim has also sued Romania's National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) over similar claims.
"The court case against NEPA has been suspended by the civil court until the Romanian law enforcement agency (DIICOT) finalises the criminal investigation, but as of now we have no indication as to when this might happen," said Holcim.