RPT-Czechs fine 16 firms $45 mln in cartel case

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The Czech competition regulator UOHS said on Monday it had fined 16 firms including Siemens, Alstom and Toshiba a total of 979.2 million crowns ($44.88 million) for a cartel agreement.

It said the firms had colluded in supplies of gas insulated switchgear, which is needed at sub-stations used to carry electricity to homes, offices and factories. The firms involved may appeal against the fines.

"They created a cartel agreement unprecedented in the experience of the UOHS for its sophistication, extent and duration," the regulator said.

The European Commission has already fined 11 producer groups for the same thing. The European Commission fine, levied last month, was 750.7 million euros. Hungarian authorities have also fined four of the firms.

"The issue is so-called bid rigging, in which participants agreed among themselves on who will offer what price of gas insulated switchgear so the contract is awarded to the company agreed in advance," the UOHS said.

It said the cartel had been agreed in 1998 in Vienna.

ABB of Switzerland blew the whistle on the cartel Europe-wide, and was also behind the Czech probe. It was not fined by the EU nor by the Czechs.

The regulator said the overall volume of business under the probe in the Czech Republic in 2001-2004 was some 700 million crowns ($32 million).

The UOHS said it only investigated the July 2001-March 2004 period because it did not have the authority to investigate the firms' behaviour at other times. It gave no details, but the Czech Republic joined the European Union in May 2004.

Siemens AG got the biggest Czech fine, of 126.6 million crowns.

Three of its other units -- Siemens Aktiengesellschaft Oesterreich, Siemens Transmission and Distribution Limited, and VA Tech -- were also fined, an additional 88.8 million, 44.4 million, and 44.4 million crowns respectively.

Siemens said it would appeal the decision.

"Siemens considers the fine imposed to be unreasonably high," it said.

Mitsubishi Electric Corp was fined 75.3 million crowns, and Toshiba Corporation got a 70.8 million fine.

((For a TABLE with all firms fined, click on))

[PRAGUE/Reuters/Finance.cz]