Press Release: Antitrust: Commission fines members of fasteners cartels over €328 million

The European Commission has fined YKK, Prym and Coats and four others a total of €328,644,000 for operating cartels on the markets for fasteners and attaching machines in Europe and worldwide, in clear violation of EC Treaty rules that outlaw restrictive business practices (Article 81). The decision names five subsidiaries of the above groups, together with Scovill group, A. Raymond, Berning & Söhne and the German trade association Fachverband Verbindungs- und Befestigungstechnik, which also participated in one of the infringements. Fasteners such as zips are used, for example, in clothes and footwear, and are also used in industry. The Commission has found four separate infringements in which these companies agreed on coordinated price increases, fixed minimum prices, allocated customers, shared markets and exchanged other commercially important and confidential information. Prym group received full immunity from fines under the Commission's leniency programme in respect of the worldwide cartel on the markets for other fasteners and attaching machines, as it was the first to provide information about this cartel. In addition, the fines imposed on Prym group for its involvement in the other infringements discovered were also lowered as a result of the company's cooperation. Smaller reductions of the fines were also granted to the YKK group and the Coats group as a result of their cooperation under the Commission's leniency programme.

European Commission: DG Communication: MEMO/07/364 http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/07/364&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

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