The Spanish CNMC (National Commission for Markets and Competition) penalized 9 companies, including the state-owned Correos, for creating a cartel. The companies have entered into a trade „nonaggression pact” and divided the market among themselves.
9 largest Spanish players in the courier industry were fined a total of 67.7 million euro for creating a cartel. State-owned company – Correos will have to pay 19.6 million euro.
„Non-aggression pact”
CNMC came upon the trail of collusion thanks to confidential information – reports the Spanish daily „El Pais.” The proceedings conducted by the Commission showed that Correos Express, UPS, TNT, DHL, Tourline, Redyser, Fedex, ICS and MBE created nine cartels to share the market. In nine separate „non-commercial non-aggression” agreements, companies have committed not to enter into commercial agreements with clients of their competitors, nor to submit offers to them.
Severe punishments
For the breach of EU and national rules on competition, companies have been punished by high fines. The largest of them will be paid by Correos Express, which is a state-owned company (19.6 million euros). The CNMC double-digit penalties were also imposed on UPS (19.2 million euros) and TNT (16.2 million euros). The others were treated less severely; DHL will pay 5 million euros, Tourline – 3.1 million Redyser – 2.1 million euros, FedEx – 1.8 million, the ICS 773 thousand euro and MBE 690 thousand euro.