Schaeffler AG

In March 2014, the European Commission fined Schaeffler and other automotive-bearing manufacturers for operating a cartel across the European Economic Area. The Commission found that the companies secretly coordinated pricing toward automotive customers from April 2004 until July 2011. The conduct included coordination over steel-price increases, requests for quotations and annual price reductions, as well as exchanges of commercially sensitive information. Schaeffler received a fine of €370,481,000. It received a leniency reduction for cooperation and a further reduction for settling the case. The Commission said the cartel affected an EU automotive-bearing market worth at least €2 billion annually. Source: European Commission https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/api/files/document/print/en/ip_14_280/IP_14_280_EN.pdf