On December 20, 2023, the BWB initially filed an application with the Cartel Court for the imposition of an appropriate fine on Riegerbau GmbH (see press release dated January 18, 2024).
It was only in the course of the proceedings before the Cartel Court that the company, with the involvement of the Federal Cartel Prosecutor, submitted a statement of acknowledgment. Hence, the application for a fine was subsequently specified in terms of the amount. Thus, Riegerbau's cooperation with the BWB was comparatively more limited than that of the other cartel members mentioned so far. This circumstance was taken into account when setting the amount of the fine. At the same time, the extent of Riegerbau's economic capacity was taken into account as well.
The Cartel Court accepted FCA’s application in its entirety and imposed a fine of EUR 43,000. The Cartel Court found in favour of FCA's application and found the price fixing and market sharing, as well as the exchange of competition-sensitive information between Riegerbau GmbH and other competitors, as alleged and proven by the FCA. The agreements concerned various construction projects in the area of facade construction. The anti-competitive behavior took place in 2017 in the area of Vienna.
Background
Telephone surveillance carried out by the Vienna State Office of Criminal Investigation in 2017 as part of a criminal investigation into certain offences against companies gave rise to suspicions that several tenders for facade construction services had been subject to systematic, anti-competitive horizontal agreements and the exchange of competitively sensitive information. On the basis of the recorded telephone conversations, which were passed to the FCA by the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Economic and Corruption (WKStA), the FCA, together with the Vienna State Office of Criminal Investigation, carried out searches at the premises of several companies in the facade construction sector in 2019.
Following a clarifying amendment to the law regarding administrative assistance, this is the first investigation that the FCA has conducted based on suspicions arising from recorded telephone conversations. The investigation was successfully carried out thanks to the excellent cooperation with the Vienna Regional Office of the Criminal Investigation Department.
Flashback
A fine was legally imposed on the following companies for their involvement in the facade construction cartel:
NFS Bau GmbH: EUR 54,000 (see press release dated November 18, 2022)
Simsek Bau GmbH: EUR 63,000 (see press release dated January 30, 2024)
Riegerbau GmbH: EUR 43,000
In total, fines in the amount of EUR 160.000 were imposed.