Brussels, 03/02/2009 (Agence Europe) - On 3 February, the European Commission announced that it had carried out unannounced inspections at the premises of companies involved in the manufacture of high voltage undersea cables. The firms are suspected of having infringed Community law on prices. According to a Commission press release published on Tuesday, inspections took place on 28-30 January 2009. The Commission has not disclosed the identities of the companies involved but Nexans SA (France) and Prysmian SpA (Italy) have both indicated that they are cooperating with the investigators. Nexans is world leader in the manufacture of high voltage undersea cables and confirmed that Commission inspectors had visited its offices, and that competition authorities in Spain, Japan, South Korea and the US had been involved. Prysmian is owned by the US Goldman Sachs group and confirmed that inspectors in “various countries” were investigating the possibility of cartels or agreements in which the company had participated. (C.D./transl.rh)