LONDON — Rio Tinto Alcan has been ordered to stop insisting that companies licensing its Aluminium Pechiney smelting technology must also buy pot-tending assembly handling equipment from subsidiary Electrification Charpente Levage, headquartered in northern France.

The European Commission has accepted and made legally binding Rio Tinto Alcan’s promise to end the practice as a condition of lifting a threat of antitrust fines in the European Union.

If the company breaches the condition, the commission could impose a fine of up to 10 percent of Rio Tinto Alcan’s total turnover.

The European Union feared that Montreal-based Rio Tinto Alcan was potentially dominating the aluminum smelter equipment market through its licensing system, damaging competition within the region.

A version of this article was first published by AMM sister publication Metal Bulletin.