Honeywell International Inc. is being targeted in an antitrust complaint from Arkema SA, which alleges the U.S. company prevents fair competition for the only car-coolant chemical that currently meets new European Union standards on greenhouse-gas emissions.
Bloomberg reports Arkema filed the complaint with the EU’s antitrust authority seeking a “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory license to Honeywell’s patents” for 1234yf, a car air-conditioning refrigerant manufactured at a new $300 million facility in Geismar.
Honeywell’s practices harm consumers, car makers and the environment “as the entire car industry is moving to worldwide deployment of 1234yf,” Arkema says in a statement released Friday.
Honeywell has already been the subject of a stalled EU probe into the refrigerant. Three years ago, the European Commission told Honeywell and Chemours Co., then owned by DuPont Co., that they might have unfairly limited supplies of the chemical. Arkema had filed a complaint in that investigation that it says it has now withdrawn.
Honeywell says the new complaint is “without merit” and appears to restate issues regulators decided not to pursue several years ago. The company “remains convinced that it acts in full compliance with EU competition rules.”
It has invested nearly $1 billion to bring the coolant to market, it says in an emailed statement.
