Ecobat, two other lead recylers face EU antitrust fines - sources

(Adds European Commission, companies comment)

By Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Ecobat Technologies, the world's biggest lead recycler, Belgian rival Campine and France's Recylex are set to be fined by EU antitrust regulators next month for taking part in a cartel, two people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

Johnson Controls International (NYSE: JCI - news) will not be sanctioned as it alerted the European Commission about the cartel, the people said.

The EU competition enforcer in June 2015 charged five companies of fixing the prices of scrap lead-acid batteries in Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands over a three-year period to 2012, resulting in lowered prices paid to scrap dealers. It did not name the companies.

The Commission subsequently dropped one company from the case, one of the people said.

Commission spokesman Ricardo Cardoso declined to comment. Ecobat had no immediate comment while Recylex and Johnson Controls said they could not comment on an ongoing investigation. Campine did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The recyclers buy scrap batteries, the bulk of them car batteries, extract the lead from them and re-use it to make new products. The case started with dawn raids by the Commission in 2012.

Companies can be penalised up to 10 percent of their global turnover for breaching EU antitrust rules. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee. Editing by Jane Merriman)