ACTIONS CORNER

Thyssen Krupp has reached an out-of-court settlement with Deutsche Bahn for its alleged involvement in the illicit price fixing of railway steel. The announcement was made on January 19 by a spokesperson for the two companies who, however, gave no indication as the amount of compensation for damages which is rumoured to be some 20 million Euros. The Essen-based company had already been sentenced to a payment of 320 million Euros eight years ago by the European Commission for associating with the rail steel Trust that had been active between 1995 and 2003.

ThyssenKrupp on appeal was unsuccessful in its attempt to oblige a former company director to repay an anti-trust fine levied in the so-called “railway steel trust” case. The Düsseldorf industrial tribunal handed down a ruling on January 20 to the effect that the group may not require its staff to repay fines levied for anti-trust cases, thus turning down the claim for 191 million Euros. The tribunal did however grant the right to appeal to the federal Industrial Tribunal. The tribunal has not yet ruled on a further claim for 100 million Euros, and has suspended the proceedings. ThyssenKrupp had sued former director Uwe Sehlbach for damages.