The offices of Siemens, ABB and several other manufacturers in Germany, France and Austria have been raided by European Commission officials investigating a possible cartel.

An EC spokesperson in Brussels said that the companies were suspected of forming a price-fixing cartel in the transformer market.

Siemens said: 鈥淭he Brussels anti-trust watchdog is investigating five companies for collusion in the area of power transformers in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands between 1999 and 2003.鈥�

The raids come only weeks after ABB, Siemens and Alstom were found guilty of operating another cartel in the market for electrical transmission systems. Firms found guilty of cartels face fines of up to 10% of turnover.

Source

Electrical and Mechanical Contractor