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European Commission fines members of lifts and escalators cartels over EUR 990 million

27.02.2007

The Commission has fined the Otis, KONE, Schindler and ThyssenKrupp groups EUR 992 million for operating cartels for the installation and maintenance of lifts and escalators in Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, in clear violation of Article 81 EC.

Between at least 1995 and 2004, these companies rigged bids for procurement contracts, fixed prices and allocated projects to each other, shared markets and exchanged commercially important and confidential information. For example, fake bids, too high to be accepted, were lodged by the companies who were not supposed to win the tender, in order to give the impression of genuine competition. The effects of this cartel may continue for twenty to fifty years as maintenance is often done by the companies that installed the equipment in the first place.

KONE subsidiaries and Otis Netherlands (in respect of the Netherlands cartel) received full immunity from fines under the Commission's leniency programme in respect of the cartels in Belgium and Luxembourg, as they were first to provide information about these cartels. The fines imposed on the ThyssenKrupp companies were increased by 50%, as it is a repeat offender. These are the largest ever fines imposed by the Commission for cartel violations.

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