Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

February-March 2012

2012; Oxford University Press; Volume: 3; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/jeclap/lps032

2041-7772

G. Fejes,

Merger and Competition Analysis

On 28 March 2012 the Commission ruled on four distinct price fixing cartels involving 14 international groups of companies and imposed fines totaling €169 million. The cartels covered the time period between 2002 to 2007 and extended to very important import trade lanes, in particular the Europe–USA and the China/Hong Kong–Europe lanes. The most severe penalties were levied on Kuehne & Nagel, the Swiss logistics group, which was fined €53.7 million, and Panalpina, another Swiss group, which was obliged to pay €46.5 million, drawing the following comment from Joaquín Almunia, the European Union's competition commissioner: The fact that such deliberate organized illegality can still take place today is shocking. We will continue to fight cartels as our number one priority, because they are the most harmful illegal activity breaching our competition rules.