European Commission fines four car carriers $486.5m

Japanese ocean carrier MOL received immunity for revealing the cartel, while the fines for CSAV, “K” Line, NYK and WWL-EUKOR were reduced for their cooperation with the investigation.    The European Commission said Wednesday that it had fined four maritime car carriers 395 million euros (U.S. $486.5 million).
   Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who is in charge of competition policy, said the following carriers participated in a cartel concerning the intercontinental maritime transport of vehicles: Chilean maritime carrier CSAV; Japanese carriers “K” Line, MOL and NYK; and the Norwegian/Swedish carrier WWL-EUKOR.
   The commission’s investigation started with an immunity application submitted by MOL. During its investigation, the commission cooperated with several competition authorities around the world, including in Australia, Canada, Japan and the United States.
   MOL received full immunity for revealing the existence of the cartel, thereby avoiding a fine of 203 million euros. CSAV, “K” Line, NYK and WWL-EUKOR benefited from reductions of their fines for their cooperation with the commission.
   WWL-EUKOR received the biggest fine at 207.3 million euros, followed by NYK at 141.8 million euros, “K” Line at 39.1 million euros and CSAV at 7 million euros.
   For almost six years, from October 2006 to September 2012, the five carriers formed a cartel in the market for deep sea transport of new cars, trucks and other large vehicles, such as combine harvesters and tractors, on various routes between Europe and other continents. The companies were sanctioned for colluding in the maritime transport of cars.
   In addition, two suppliers of spark plugs were fined 76 million euros, and two suppliers of braking systems were fined 75 million euros, for taking part in cartels in breach of EU antitrust rules.
   “All companies acknowledged their involvement in the cartels and agreed to settle the cases,” the European Commission said.
   “The three separate decisions taken today show that we will not tolerate anticompetitive behavior affecting European consumers and industries,” Vestager said. “By raising component prices or transport costs for cars, the cartels ultimately hurt European consumers and adversely impacted the competitiveness of the European automotive sector, which employs around 12 million people in the EU.”
   The European Commission said its investigation revealed that, to coordinate anticompetitive behavior, the ocean carriers’ sales managers met on a regular basis in person or communicated by telephone.
   “They coordinated prices, allocated customers and exchanged commercially sensitive information about elements of the price, such as charges and surcharges added to prices to offset currency or oil prices fluctuations,” the commission said. “The carriers agreed to maintain the status quo in the market and to respect each other’s traditional business on certain routes or with certain customers, by quoting artificially high prices or not quoting at all in tenders issued by vehicle manufacturers.”