A DUBLIN sugar importer and distributor has commenced a High Court action for damages against Greencore arising out of a European Commission decision that Greencore had abused its dominant market position during the 1980s and 1990s.

ASI Sugar, Carriglea Industrial Estate, Naas Road, is seeking damages, including punitive and aggravated damages, against Greencore, Irish Sugar and Sugar Distributors for the loss of profits it claims to have suffered as a result of certain practices during the 1990s.

In what was described as the first action of its type, ASI has taken proceedings alleging Greencore's abuse of its dominant position in the granulated sugar market for retail and industrial sale in the Republic, infringement of competition law, the EU treaty and breach of statutory duty.

The defendants deny the claims. The case, which opened before Mr Justice Liam McKechnie yesterday, is expected to last for several weeks.

Mr James O'Reilly SC, for ASI, said this "unique action" was a follow-on to the European Commission's 1997 finding that Irish Sugar, which then had 90 per cent share of the Irish market, had abused its dominant position by engaging in practices such as selective pricing, export rebates, price discrimination against competing sugar packers, target rebates and selective pricing for industrial sugar.

Counsel said all but one of the the breaches were upheld when the decision was appealed to both the European Court of First Instance and the European Court of Justice, which ruled on the matter in 2001. The defendants were fined more than €8 million, which was reduced on appeal to about €7 million.

As a result of the abuses, ASI was, it claims, prevented from fully participating in the market for industrial sale of granulated sugar in Ireland, and suffered enormous loss. So adverse were the consequences of the defendant's "unlawful market strategies" that ASI was driven out of the Irish marketplace in July 1994 barely one year after an attempted re-entry.

ASI, which was in 1990 mainly owned by a French company, had attempted to secure a presence in the Irish market with sugar sourced in France, he said. That entry was met with a "sustained and hostile" response from the defendants.

ASI had hoped to obtain a market share of 10 per cent in 1991, rising up to 30 per cent in the following years. However it claimed that due to the actions of the defendants, it only obtained a market share of 2 per cent in 1991 which by 1997 had never been higher than 3 per cent. After the 1997 decision, ASI's market share rose to 11.5 per cent by 2001.

The defendants deny the claims, plead the claim is outside the legal time limits and also claim contributory negligence by ASI.