The Antitrust fines 16 foundries 70 million for a price cartel that lasted twenty years

Twenty years of cartel between Italian foundries thanks to the trade association. This was confirmed byAntitrust which closed the investigation against 16 of the main Italian cast iron foundries and the trade association Assofondestablishing an agreement restricting competition in violation of Article 101 TFEU in the Italian market for the sale of cast iron castings, implemented at least from 5 February 2004 until 30 June 2024.

For this reason – we read in a note – the Antitrust, against maximum applicable sanctions of around 600 million euros, given the seriousness of the conduct, has imposed sanctions totaling 70 million taking into account the significant crisis in the sector concerned.

The companies involved are: C2MAC Group, Fonderia Corrà, Fonderie Orazio e Fortunato De Riccardis, Fonderie Guido Glisenti and its subsidiary Lead Time, Pilenga Baldassarre Foundry and its parent company Ef Group, Fonderie Mora Gavardo and its parent company Camozzi Group, Zanardi Fonderie spa, VDP Fonderia, Fonderie Ariotti, Ironcastings, Fonderia Zardo, ZML Industries and its parent company Cividale.

The Authority – the note continues – has ascertained that the coordination between the parties concerned the trade policies with the aim of support requests for price increasesstrengthening the bargaining power towards demand and to preserve a certain margin, especially in times when the economic situation was negative. This aim, explains the Antitrust, was pursued through exchanges of sensitive information and by jointly developing price indexation mechanisms (the “Assofond Indicators”) which have allowed foundries to update in a coordinated manner an increasingly large part of the price of iron castings, including the sales margin.