Brussels, 02/04/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 2 April, the European Commission imposed fines totalling nearly €302 million on producers of underground and submarine high voltage power cables for operating a cartel at almost global level between 1999 and January 2009.
“These companies knew very well that what they were doing was illegal. This is why they acted cautiously and with great secrecy”, explained EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia. The European Commission has gathered together several thousand documents deleted by an employee of the Nexans company. The other producers involved are ABB, Prysmian (formerly Pirelli), J-Power Systems (formerly Sumitomo Electric and Hitachi Metals), VISCAS (formerly Furukawa Electric and Fujikura), EXSYM (formerly SWCC Showa and Mitsubishi Cable), Brugg, NKT, Silec (formerly Safran), LS Cable and Taihan.
ABB received full immunity for revealing the existence of the cartel to the Commission, and its parent companies, Hitachi Metals and Sumitomo Electric, received a 45% reduction of the fine for cooperating with the investigation under the Commission's Leniency Notice. This reduction reflects the timing and level of their cooperation and the extent to which the evidence they provided helped the Commission to prove the cartel. In addition, the latter three companies received partial immunity for the first two years of their cartel involvement, as they were the first to submit evidence to the Commission on the existence of the cartel during that period of time. One company invoked its inability to pay the fine, but the Commission refused to reduce it. Investment company Goldman Sachs, the former owner of Prysmian, is held liable and has been fined around €36 million.
The companies divided up projects among themselves according to geographical region and also fixed prices. (EL)