European Property Federation

COMPETITION
issue	impact	status

Bathroom Fittings Cartel

¤ April 2007 ¤

Will end bathroom fitting price fixing.

Commission Statement of Objections.

Lift and Escalator Cartels

¤ March 2007 ¤

Largest Commission fines ever. Opportunity for property and shopping centre companies to seek damages.

Companies fined € 992 million.

Copper plumbing cartel

¤ September 2004 ¤

Cartel raised prices for plumbing replacement work or when building/ buying a house or other building

Status: € 222.3 million fine

Commission condemns Belgian architects’ recommended minimum fee scale

¤ June 2004 ¤

Belgian Architects’ Association fined; practices condemned, leading to increased competition.

Part of the Commission competition authorities’ ongoing investigations of liberal professions.

Anti-competitive practices among liberal professions servicing property owners

¤ February 2004 ¤

Freeing up the market reduces costs for property owners.

Investigations ongoing.

Lift and Escalator Cartel

¤ February 2004 ¤

Direct impact on costs for building owners.

Preliminary step in the Commission’s investigations.

No strict deadline to complete probe.

Reinforced Concrete Bar Cartel

¤ January 2003 ¤

Check on cost of building.

Companies have three months to pay.

Plasterboard Cartel

¤ December 2002 ¤

Plasterboard is an important component of construction/client costs.

Fines must be paid to EU by end February 2003.

Construction Products

¤ April 2001 ¤

Could lead to higher prices in Holland and Finland for precast concrete floors and structures and for grey cement.

Commission has until August to investigate.

Facility Management: European Commission clears SEI and Mitsubishi Electric Europe joint venture for provision of facility management services in Italy

¤ September 2000 ¤

First known decision on facility management.

Clearance.

Cement

¤ April 2000 ¤

Dismantling of cement cartel.

Judgement of the European Court of First Instance.

Commission prohibition and fines for a Dutch construction cartel

¤ April 2000 ¤

Case potentially applicable to all Member States.

Decision confirmed by the European Court of Justice.

Following Commission objections, auto-dissolution of restrictive practices by the Dutch Lift Association

¤ November 1999 ¤

Case potentially applicable to lift manufacture, distribution, maintenance companies in all Member States.

Case closed for Holland. For other countries, Commission would be happy to prosecute, if alerted.

District heating pipe cartel

¤ November 1999 ¤

Concerns Scandinavian and German markets.

On 22 October 1998, Commission imposed fine of 92,2 million ECU on 10 companies, 75% for Asea Brown Boveri alone.

Tariff set by public notaries for acts of transfer of property

¤ November 1999 ¤

Initial denunciation concerned practices in Amsterdam.

Commission investigations advancing slowly. More complaints from more countries probably necessary.