Campus

Cartels on the up

The Bundeskartellamt (Federal Antitrust Authority) is turning up more and more illegal agreements. Fines totalling 248 million euros have been imposed by the competition authorities in 2012, through 14 cases for antitrust violations against entrepreneurs. The total sum was higher than the previous year’s by more than a quarter, or 55 million euros. The number of companies affected increased by a third, to 57 (previous year: 42). About half of the total, €124.5 million, was accounted for by the so-called rail cartel, in which rail manufacturers had joined forces for the purpose of agreements to the detriment of Deutsche Bank, the Kartellamt announced on 18 December 2012 in Bonn.  The focus here is above all on ThyssenKrupp. The regulator had already identified the battered industrial group in its penalty notices in mid-2012 as the main culprits. In this affair further investigations are under way. In addition, the federal agency subjected 21 mergers, out of a total of about 1,200 merger notifications, to in-depth investigations. Four projects were barred, a further four abandoned by the parties themselves, and one merger was approved subject to conditions, the Office said.