Shortly after the investigations were announced, one of our customers, JLM Industries, initiated a lawsuit against Odfjell in the US. The lawsuit is entirely based on information given in various articles in the Wall Street Journal. The claim is approximately USD 3 million. It has now been applied to the courts in the US to extend this lawsuit to a "class action" against Odfjell, Stolt-Nielsen, Tokyo Marine and JO Tankers.
Odfjell has not yet received any feedback from the EU Commission. In the US we are currently preparing to hand over to the authorities various documents as requested. It is anticipated that this matter will be ongoing for months if not years. Breaches of antitrust regulations in the EU and/or the US may lead to substantial fines as well as potential civil lawsuits.
Bergen, 10 April 2003