Germany: Deutsche Bahn seeks millions for steel price-fixing

Germany railway Deutsche Bahn will reportedly filed a lawsuit against steel makers over allegations that they formed a price-fixing cartel, leading the German conglomerate to seek hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

Reports say nine companies – four of them based in Germany – are being sued by Deutsche Bahn, though were not named in reports. According to reports, the railway company claims that while the firms cooperated with the European Commission’s probe of the matter, affected clients of the steel companies were denied appeals for a settlement.

”We’re not going to take it anymore,” Deutsche Bahn board member Gerd Becht told reporters.

Becht said Deutsche Bahn conducted an internal investigation and found that the alleged price-fixing cartel inflated prices for the company by 20 to 30 percent over the course of 18 years.

Steel producers were fined $717 million by EU regulators in 2010 for running a cartel.

Full content: The Nation

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