In its meeting of 19 July 2017, at the end of a complex investigation initiated in October 2015, the Italian Competition Authority (“ICA”) imposed penalties of more than 140 million euros on the main steel companies operating in the reinforcing steel bar and electro-welded mesh markets.
The ICA ascertained that, from 2010 to 2016, the companies Alfa Acciai S.p.A., Feralpi Siderurgica S.p.A., Ferriera Valsabbia S.p.A., Industrie Riunite Odolesi I.R.O. S.p.A., O.R.I. Martin - Acciaieria e Ferriera di Brescia S.p.A., Stefana S.p.A., Riva Acciaio S.p.A., Ferriere Nord S.p.A. and its parent company Fin.Fer. S.p.A. colluded in a single, continued and complex agreement seriously infringing Art. 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. As a matter of fact, they coordinated their reciprocal commercial policies on domestic markets of the two products concerned, where all together they cover more than 80% of the offer.

To implement their agreement aimed at restricting competition, the said companies systematically used their regular meeting opportunities, including Nuovo Campsider association meetings, where every month they would share commercially sensitive information on the purchase prices of ferrous scrap (the main production input of both reinforcing bars and electro-welded meshes) and their respective production plans, as well as the fortnightly meetings of the Steel Products Prices Committee of the Brescia Chamber of Commerce, where they would define in a concerted manner the selling prices of both products, which would then become the reference prices for the whole market.

Amidst a serious crisis for the steel sector, the companies’ coordinated commercial conduct led to them achieving revenues and margins higher than obtainable under normal competitive conditions, to the detriment of the demand represented by the construction sector and, lastly, its customers.
The Italian Competition Authority therefore decided to impose the following pecuniary sanctions:

Rome, 1 August 2017