The European Commission adopted three separate decisions about cartels and fined the relevant companies €546 million.
- With the first decision, the companies, namely CSAV (Chilean), "K" Line, MOL, NYK (Japanese) and WWL-EUKOR (Norwegian/Swedish) was fined €395 million as they participated in a cartel regarding intercontinental maritime transport of certain vehicles such as new cars, trucks etc. The cartel lasted 6 years between October 2006 and September 2012. The cartel participants coordinated prices, shared customers and exchanged commercially sensitive information. MOL avoided a fine of approx. €203 million as it applied for immunity.
- In the second decision, Bosch (German), Denso and NGK (Japanese) were fined €76 million as they involved in a cartel for the supply of spark plugs to car manufacturers. The cartel lasted between 2000 and 2011 and the relevant companies exchanged commercially sensitive information and agreed on prices. Denso avoided a fine of approx. €1 million as it applied for immunity.
- The third decision involved two cartels regarding braking systems. The participants of the first cartel regarding hydraulic braking systems were TRW (USA, now ZF TRW - German), Bosch (German) and Continental (German) whereas Bosch (German) and Continental (German) were the actors in the second cartel concerning electronic braking systems. The fine imposed on the companies totalled €75 million. The companies had the purpose of coordinating market conduct via exchange of commercially sensitive information on prices. The first cartel lasted between February 2007 and March 2011 whereas the second cartel lasted between September 2010 and July 2011. TRW avoided a fine of approx. €54 million in the first cartel whereas Continental avoided approx. €22 million in the second cartel thanks to immunity applications.
The press release dated 21 February 2018 about the decision of the European Commission is available at http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-18-962_en.htm whereas the statement by Commissioner Margrethe Vestager is available at http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_STATEMENT-17-3509_en.htm