The Authority found a cartel involving the main Italian iron foundries and the trade association Assofond. The statutory fine cap amounted to around €600 million.

The Italian Competition Authority has closed its investigation into C2MAC Group S.p.A., Fonderia Corrà S.p.A., Fonderie Orazio and Fortunato De Riccardis S.r.l., Fonderie Guido Glisenti S.p.A. and its subsidiary Lead Time S.p.A., Pilenga Baldassarre Foundry S.r.l. and its parent company E.F. Group S.p.A., Fonderie Mora Gavardo S.r.l. and its parent company Camozzi Group S.p.A., Zanardi Fonderie S.p.A., VDP Fonderia S.p.A., Fonderie Ariotti S.p.A., Ironcastings S.p.A., Fonderia Zardo S.p.A., ZML Industries S.p.A. and its parent company Cividale S.p.A., as well as the trade association Assofond. The Authority’s investigation revealed the existence of an anti-competitive agreement, in breach of Article 101 TFEU, in the Italian market for the sale of cast irons. The infringement started no later than 5 February 2004 and continued until 30 June 2024.

For this reason, the Authority, in light of maximum applicable fines of approximately €600 million given the seriousness of the conduct, imposed fines totalling €70 million taking into account the significant crisis affecting the sector.

The Authority found that the parties coordinated their commercial strategies to support price increase requests, thereby strengthening their bargaining power vis-à-vis customers, and to preserve profit margins, particularly during periods of economic downturn. This was achieved through exchanges of sensitive information and by jointly developing price indexation mechanisms (the “Assofond Indicators”), which enabled the foundries to update in a coordinated manner an increasingly large portion of the price of cast irons, including the sales margin.

Rome, 31 December 2025

Executive summary

Text of the decision