Contingencies

Legal Proceedings

We are involved in various investigations, lawsuits, claims, demands, environmental compliance programs and other legal proceedings arising out of or incidental to the conduct of our business. While it is not possible to determine the ultimate disposition of each of these matters, we do not believe that their ultimate disposition will have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations or cash flows.

GrafTech and Brazil Legacy Antitrust Investigation - On October 8, 2014, the General Superintendent of the Administrative Council of Economic Defense ("CADE") in Brazil announced that the agency would be continuing an investigation of anticompetitive activity allegedly affecting the Brazilian market from 1992 to 1998. The investigation was originally commenced in 2002 and has essentially been dormant for many years. There have been no penalties assessed or asserted against GrafTech.

The investigation purportedly relates to violations of antitrust laws that were previously investigated in 1997 - 2002 by the U.S. Department of Justice, the European Commission, and other countries in connection with the sale of graphite electrodes. Those antitrust investigations and related lawsuits and claims have long been resolved. Several of the investigations and related lawsuits and claims resulted in fines and settlements, all of which were timely paid many years ago.

GrafTech has cooperated in all of these legacy investigations, including having timely responded to requests for information from the Brazilian agency several years ago. GrafTech plans to respond as appropriate to the resurrection of the Brazilian matter. GrafTech believes that it has procedural and substantive defenses to the allegations in the Brazilian matter and that no further investigatory activities are warranted.

Product Warranties

We generally sell products with a limited warranty. We accrue for known warranty claims if a loss is probable and can be reasonably estimated. We also accrue for estimated warranty claims incurred based on a historical claims charge analysis. Claims accrued but not yet paid and the related activity within the accrual for the nine months ended September 30, 2014, are presented below:



	(Dollars in thousands)
Balance as of December 31, 2013	$	1,050
Product warranty adjustments	(117		)
Payments and settlements	(202		)
Balance as of September 30, 2014	$	731