EU hits pipe-makers with €222.3m fine

The European Union has imposed a €222.3m fine on Europe’s main makers of copper plumbing pipes for price fixing and dividing up the market.

The EU’s executive commission said the firms, involving Sweden’s Boliden, Britain’s, Finland’s Outokumpu Oyj and units of Italy’s SMI, ran a cartel in 1988-2001 in a market worth about €1.15 billion yearly.

“The companies operated a well-structured, classic cartel with code names, meetings in anonymous airport lounges and the clear objective to avoid competition through allocation of production volumes and market shares,” it said.