Bluescope

BlueScope Steel spent $27 million defending the ACCC’s claims that it engaged in serious cartel conduct in relation to the supply of flat steel products in Australia, and its apologies came too late to warrant a penalty discount, a court has heard.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has opposed BlueScope Steel general manager Jason Ellis’ request for court permission to manage another company, saying he should wait until the ACCC’s price-fixing case against him has been decided.

BlueScope general manager Jason Ellis made executives of a steel distributor “extremely uncomfortable” in a meeting where he presented the steel giant’s price list, a court hearing the ACCC’s price-fixing case was told Monday.

BlueScope Steel general manager Jason Ellis was not an honest witness and did not express genuine regret when he apologised for obstructing an ACCC investigation, a court hearing the regulator’s price-fixing case was told Tuesday.

A judge hearing a price-fixing case against steel giant BlueScope has overruled an objection to the ACCCs barrister’s allegedly excessive “eye-rolling” and “scathing and sarcastic” manner during a cross-examination in which the company’s general manager was accused of lying under oath.

BlueScope has labelled “delusional” an argument by the competition regulator that alleged correspondence from a distributor about the steel company’s suggested higher prices was evidence of price-fixing.

Steel maker Bluescope’s claim that it didn’t engage in cartel conduct because it only encouraged distributors to set a price for its products would “eviscerate” cartel laws, the ACCC has told a court.

Lawyers representing Bluescope in an appeal of a Fair Work case copped a scolding by a judge Thursday for sending multiple emails to his chambers “pressuring” his associate to provide dates for a hearing.

Former BlueScope general manager of sales and marketing Jason Ellis has been sentenced to a wholly suspended prison term of eight months after pleading guilty to obstructing a price fixing investigation.

Crown prosecutors are arguing a former BlueScope executive who has pleaded guilty to obstructing an ACCC price fixing investigation should face jail time for the “objectively serious” conduct.