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EU: German auto-parts maker fined €68 million over cartel

By  |  June 17, 2015

European Union regulators slapped German auto-parts producer, Eberspaecher Group, with a 68 million euro fine for colluding with rival Webasto to set prices for parking heaters.

The European Commission, the bloc’s top antitrust authority, said the two German companies had coordinated prices and allocated customers across Europe over a ten-year period, starting in September 2001.

The cartel involved fuel-operated parking heaters–which heat parked cars or truck–and auxiliary heaters, which support the heating system of a running car or truck.

“For over ten years, the only two suppliers of parking heaters in Europe colluded to avoid competing with each other,” EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.

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