German rail operator Deutsche Bahn plans to sue members of a rail track cartel that may have defrauded it of hundreds of millions of euros during a decade of price-fixing, after four of them were fined. The state-owned company said it would claim at least 100 million euros ($125 million) in damages from cartel members, which include steelmaker ThyssenKrupp, two Voestalpine units and rail technology group Vossloh.
Earlier on Thursday, Germany's cartel office fined the four suppliers 124.5 million euros for price-fixing, and said it was still investigating one other company as well as regional and local rail track suppliers. It fined ThyssenKrupp 103 million euros, Vossloh 13 million euros and two units of Voestalpine - which acted as whistleblower - a total of 8.5 million euros.
"The rail track suppliers secured almost constant quotas of orders for one another from Deutsche Bahn over many years," said cartel office president Andreas Mundt, adding the price-fixing had taken place between 2001 and 2011. "The cartel members controlled quotas, assigned projects to one another and specified protected prices to manage the awarding of contracts," he said in a statement. Austrian steelmaker Voestalpine took a charge of 205 million euros for potential liabilities from the cartel investigation in its last fiscal year to cover fines and potential damages it may have to pay Deutsche Bahn.