Increasingly tough penalties imposed by European competition regulators on cartel offenders were thrown into the spotlight on Friday when one of the largest chemicals manufacturers in Slovakia filed for protection from its creditors just weeks after being slapped with a €19.5m ($28.7m) fine by the European Commission.

Competition lawyers have been arguing for months that the increasingly high fines being imposed for price-fixing in the European Union could create problems in the current economic climate – and ultimately prove counterproductive if businesses were forced to fold.