‘Ethylene cartel did not cause damages’ – says Dutch court rejecting Shell’s €1bn claim
In July 2026, the District Court of Amsterdam rejected a €1bn damage claim by Shell Chemicals Europe (SCE) against members of the ethylene buyer cartel. The European Commission found that the four defendants had exchanged price-sensitive information aimed at depressing the prices they paid SCE for merchant ethylene. SCE’s follow-on action failed because it over-relied on econometric analysis, which the court rejected as statistically flawed and unsupported by a plausible theory of harm. This Casenote assesses the judgment and draws out the lessons for those pursuing follow-on antitrust claims.