EU court cuts ThyssenKrupp fine

The European Commission had fined the German industrial group and four other companies a total 992.31 million euros in 2007, a record at the time for running an escalator and lift cartel in Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

ThyssenKrupp's 479.67 million euro fine was the largest. The Commission had increased by 50 percent the fines on the parent company and several of its subsidiaries for repeated offences.

"The Court points out that the Commission had, in an earlier decision, made a finding of infringement solely against those companies, but not against their parent companies at the material time, of which ThyssenKrupp AG is the economic and legal successor," the EU's General Court said.

The court, Europe's second-highest, said it was also not clear that several ThyssenKrupp subsidiaries penalised in a separate case could be considered repeat offenders in the elevator cartel.

The court upheld Schindler's fine of 143.78 million euros, a 224.93 million penalty for Otis, owned by United Technologies of the US, Finnish peer Kone's 142.12 million euro fine and Mitsubishi Electric of Japan's 1.84 million euro penalty.

ThyssenKrupp's shares were trading 1.1 percent higher at 32 euros by 0849 GMT, outperforming a 0.5 percent rise in the Stoxx 600 industrial groups and services index.

Regulators had charged the group of fixing prices, sharing markets and rigging bids for procurement contracts between 1995 and 2004, possibly distorting the markets for years to come.

Copyright Reuters, 2011