Spain's Competition Authority Fines Cartel Including Alstom, Siemens and Nokia Around $147 Million

By Cecilia Butini

Spain's competition watchdog said Friday that it has fined a series of companies including Alstom SA, Siemens AG and Nokia Corp. a sum of around 127.3 million euros ($147.4 million) for participating in a cartel aimed at sharing public contracts in rail signaling.

The group of companies--which also includes ACS SA's Cobra subsidiary, Siemens Rail and Thales SA--are said to have operated as a cartel in the signaling and communications systems field for 15 years, the watchdog said.

Between 2002 and 2017, the companies fraudulently shared tenders--worth more than EUR4.1 billion in total--that were issued by Spain's railway infrastructure manager Adif, the authority said. The contracts were for the construction, supply, installation and maintenance of security and communications infrastructure of high-speed and regular railways.

The watchdog said it has also levied fines on ten executives from the companies involved due to their direct involvement, which amount to EUR483,000.

Representatives of the companies didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Write to Cecilia Butini at cecilia.butini@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 01, 2021 12:32 ET (16:32 GMT)

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