Civil damage claims served in Austrian cartel case

Civil damage claims totalling € 108 million have been filed against leading elevator and escalator companies in Austria following the fines already imposed on them by the Austrian Cartel Court in 2007.

Most of the claims have been filed on a joint and several basis and the claimed amounts have not been broken down per defendant.

A total of eight claims were served on Kone's Austrian subsidiary. However, in a statement Kone said the claims were 'without merit'.

In December 2007 the Austrian Cartel Court found that Kone's Austrian subsidiary and four other elevator and escalator companies had been involved in anticompetitive practices in the Austrian market before mid-2004 and were subsequently fined. The decision was upheld by the Austrian Supreme Court.

In February of the same year the European Commission handed out the biggest fines in its history when it found five elevator and escalator manufacturers had colluded to fix prices in Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and The Netherlands between 1995 and 2004.

The fines levied against Kone, Mitsubishi, Otis, Schindler and Thyssenkrupp totalled € 992 million. By far the largest fine - € 480 million - was given to Thyssenkrupp, which the Commission described as a "repeat offender", having been prosecuted in 1998 for being part of a stainless steel cartel.

The statement from Kone said each of the civil damage claims and the related evidence will be considered separately. It is not known how long proceedings will last.