Press Release: Antitrust: Commission fines prestressing steel producers € 269 million for two-decades long price-fixing and market-sharing cartel

The European Commission has fined 17 producers of prestressing steel a total of €269,870,750 for operating a cartel that lasted 18 years until 2002 and covered all but three of the then European Union Member States. The Commission decision concludes that the producers violated the European Union's ban on cartels and restrictive business practices. Prestressing steel comprises long, curled steel wires used with concrete in construction sites to make foundations, balconies or bridges.