Providers of specialist mining services fined for price fixing and bid-rigging

The Bundeskartellamt has imposed fines totalling 17.4 million euros on five providers of specialist underground mining services on account of price fixing agreements and bid-rigging. The companies are BeMo Tunnelling GmbH, Deutschland, Deilmann-Haniel GmbH, Feldhaus Bergbau GmbH & Co. KG, Schachtbau Nordhausen GmbH and Thyssen Schachtbau GmbH¹. The proceedings were initiated with a dawn raid in April 2013 following an application for leniency by Operta GmbH, upon which no fine was imposed in accordance with the Bundeskartellamt's leniency programme.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: "The companies coordinated their bids for the award of service contracts to avoid any form of price competition. Incoming orders were divided up among themselves in advance. This meant that when bidding they did not have to fear that their competitors could submit a lower bid. The cartel proceedings could be concluded in a relatively short period of time thanks to the extensive cooperation of all the companies involved."

The anticompetitive agreements concerned two different issues:
As part of the conversion of "Schacht Konrad", a former iron ore mine near Salzgitter into a final storage site for radioactive waste, which already began in 2007, the German engineering company for the final dispoal of radioactive waste, Deutsche Gesellschaft zum Bau und Betrieb von Endlagern für Abfallstoffe (DBE GmbH, Peine), intended to award contracts for specialist underground mining services for this project in several lots in early 2011. The total value of the contracts amounted to around 110 million euros. The six companies involved formed several bidding consortia to bid for the awards. The Bundeskartellamt's investigations have shown that during the bidding phase the companies or bidding syndicates agreed not only to divide specific lots among themselves but also coordinated the price levels of their bids (and cover quotes).

In late January 2008 competitors providing specialist underground mining services met at a hotel in Gladbeck. The meeting was attended by representatives of BeMo Tunnelling, Operta and Thyssen Schachtbau. Those attending agreed to avoid a price war for future contracts for specialist mining services awarded by RAG Deutsche Steinkohle AG. To ensure this they agreed to coordinate their bids for contracts awarded by this customer. The companies also set quotas for contracts still to be placed. As a result, in the period from October 2010 to November 2012, the companies coordinated bids for more than 30 projects for the Auguste Victoria, Ibbenbüren and Prosper Haniel collieries amounting to a net tender value of approx. 80 million euros.

In calculating the fines the Bundeskartellamt took account of the fact that all the companies mentioned had cooperated with the authority during the proceedings within the scope of its leniency programme. In addition, a settlement could be reached with the five companies fined, which also helped to reduce the level of the fines.

The orders imposing the fines are not yet final and can be appealed to the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court.
In the proceedings the Bundeskartellamt worked closely together with the public prosecutor's office in Bochum since the cartels involved publicly tendered services. The public prosecutor's office is investigating the natural persons involved.

¹ Note: This company does not belong to the ThyssenKrupp company group.