Siemens announced today that it intends to go to the European Court of Justice to take legal action against antitrust fines of around €396 million charged by the EU Commission.
The company denies the blanket accusation of the EU Commission that it participated in a cartel in the European market for 72kV and higher gas-insulated switchgear systems (GIS) between 1988 and 2004.
Siemens said price fixing in the GIS segment took place only in a few projects in the European economic area and only during two year time frame. Internal investigations indicated that three Siemens PTD employees fixed prices between October 2002 and April 2004. These employees were suspended immediately after accusations became known and no longer work for Siemens.
‘The fines are completely exaggerated, and we cannot understand how the Commission arrived at these amounts,’ said Dr. Udo Niehage, President of the Power Transmission and Distribution (PTD), the Siemens Group that manufactures GIS systems.
Swiss geoengineering start-up targets methane removal
No mention whatsoever about the effect of increased methane levels/iron chloride in the ocean on the pH and chemical properties of the ocean - are we...