PMU Imposes Fines of Over €97 million on Cable Cartel Participants

Bratislava, 10 March (TASR) - The Anti-monopoly Office (PMU) has uncovered a cartel of companies operating in the cable manufacturing sector, PMU vice-chair Peter Demcak and head of PMU's cartel section Juraj Syrny told a news conference on Tuesday. The cartel involved 11 participants who maintained a uniform price-fixing agreement over a long period. The office has imposed fines on the companies totalling more than €97 million, the biggest-ever amount in its history, said Demcak, noting that this is just a first-instance ruling. "As for the practice or nature of this cartel, it involved coordination among manufacturers and sellers of cables containing a metallic component, namely copper or aluminium. The coordination concerned the pricing of the metal component in these cables," explained Demcak. He stressed that the cables are used in many sectors of the economy; for example, in railway and security infrastructure, optical cable production, telecommunications, electricity transmission and distribution, and in the construction sector. The potential impact of the cartel agreement was huge, therefore. According to Demcak, the administrative proceedings were preceded by an appeal for leniency from two of the cartel participants, who admitted their involvement and provided evidence of its existence. They were not fined as a result. Syrny explained that the price of a cable consists of two components, namely the base price and the surcharge for metal, the so-called quotation. "And it was in relation to this quotation that companies coordinated between themselves, as they agreed on a uniform method of calculating the quotation of copper and aluminium metals, with this quotation making up a significant portion of the final price of the cables," he said. According to PMU's findings, the participants in the cartel were not only Slovak, but also included several Czech companies that manufacture and supply cables, as well as their association. However, the office only assessed their activities on Slovak territory. The cartel agreement lasted from 2009 to 2022. The maximum fine is 10 percent of turnover, but not all companies received the highest possible penalty. ko/df