European Union regulators on Wednesday fined steel producer ArcelorMittal $337 million for secret deals to fix steel prices for nearly two decades with 16 other steel makers.
The European Commission says it fined all of the companies a total of euro518 million, bringing to euro1.49 billion the amount of fines it has levied this year on businesses who formed cartels.
It accuses the steel producers of holding more than 550 meetings from 1984 to 2002 to fix prices across Europe and allocate customers for prestressing steel, long curled steel wires used by builders .
ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel maker, received the largest fine based on the size of its operations and revenues — but also won a reduction for cooperating with investigators.
Austrian firm Voestalpine said it would appeal its euro22 million fine, saying it told the EU commission that the company has never been involved in the prestressing steel cartel.” — AP