High fines for Austrian forwarding companies

The Cartel Court imposed fines against four companies operating in the provision of rail freight transport and logistics services.  A fine of EUR 184,000 was imposed on Rail Cargo Logistics Austria GmbH, one of EUR 2 million on Panalpina Welttransport GmbH, another one of EUR 318,000 on Schenker & Co AG and another fine of EUR 3.5 million on the Etransa Speditions AG.
The anti-competitive practices were related to agreements in the provision of rail freight transport and logistics services in cross-border traffic. The companies involved have agreed on freezing (division) of transport volumes, the handling of sections, the prices as well as the division of generated (and also agreed) revenues as part of recurring tenders for the transport of steel tubes to former CIS states by an Austrian customer in the period between November 2005 and the end of December 2010.
The cartel court proceedings were preceded by a leniency application of Kühne & Nagel International AG, which only played a minor role and was subsequently granted immunity from fines. The companies Rail Cargo Logistics Austria GmbH, Panalpian and Schenker & Co AG provided extensive acknowledgements in respect of anti-competitive practices.
Etransa appealed against the decision of the Cartel Court to the Supreme Court (OGH) as Supreme Cartel Court. By decision of 31 March 2016 the OGH as Supreme Cartel Court dismissed the appeal of Etransa.
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