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Similar actions were taken at the premises of undertakings active in the
cement and related products market in Spain on September 22-23, 2009.
Precedent Commission Practice of Cement Market
The cement market has always been one of the sectorsmost scrutinized
by the Commission. For instance, the Commission, in its decisions of
1994 decided to fine the European Cement Association (Cembureau),
8 national cement associations, and 33 European cement producers for
violation of Article 85 (new article 101) of the EC Treaty, including
their participation in a general market sharing agreement, transnational
restrictive practices, and restrictive practices relating to exportation.
The conclusion of long inspections and investigations carried out
by the Commission is the observation that a number of large European
manufacturers monitored exports and export forecasts, compared supply
and demand on internal and export markets, and exchanged information
on prices by means of the information and coordination bodies that they
set up, such as the European Cement Export Committee (ECEC) and the
European Export Policy Committee (EPC). These companies also entered
into restrictive practices in relation to white cement exporters. In fact, the
Commission pronounced a total fine of 248 million ECU
4
3
.
The national competition authorities of Member States, such as
the Turkish Competition Board, have executed several competition
investigations concerning this sector
5
4
.
3
The European Currency Unit was a basket of the currencies of the European Community
member states, used as the unit of account of the Community before being replaced by the
EURO on January 1, 1999, at parity.
4
The German and Polish competition authorities fined cartel agreements in the cement market
in 2003 and 2009, respectively. The French Competition Authority fined anti-competitive
practices in the said market in 2007. The Turkish Competition Board fined similar practices
by Turkish cement producers in 2005 (Decision numbered 05-05/42-17 and dated January
13, 2005), 2004 (Decision numbered 04-77/1109-278 and dated December 2, 2004) and 2002
(Decision numbered 02-06/51-24 and dated February 1, 2002) respectively. The Turkish
Competition Authority recently opened an investigation against 10 cement producers active
in the eastern part of the Turkish Republic, namely Kars Çimento, Aşkale Çimento, Yurt
Çimento, Limak Çimento, Elazığ Altınova Çimento, Çimko Çimento, Çimsa Çimento, Adana
Çimento, KÇS Kahramanmaraş Çimento and Mardin Çimento.