Verdi, ZDS reach agreement after five rounds of negotiations
NewsThe German union Verdi and ZDS reached a new labour agreement for 11,500 North Sea port workers, pending a member vote.
Hamburg towage firms penalised
The German anti-cartel authority Bundeskartellamt has fined three Hamburg-based harbour towage companies a total €13M for having concluded illegal deals on rates and market share split.
The price-fixing has gone on from “at least” 2002 through to 2013, the authority said today (Monday,18th December).
A German investigation still under way could lead to a Dutch firm also being penalised, the Dutch anti-cartel body ACM has added. The investigation, which started around three years ago, was a joint operation by the Bundeskartellamt and the ACM.
The Hamburg towage companies that have been fined are Fairplay Schleppdampfschiffsreederei Richard Borchard, Bugsier-, Reederei- und Bergungs and Petersen & Alpers.
A fourth Hamburg-based company, Unterweser Reederei, and its subsidiary Lütgens & Reimers were acquitted as whistle blowers. A fifth German towage company, Neue Schleppdampfschiffsreederei Louis Meyer was spared, as it has meanwhile quit the business.
The Bundeskartellamt stated that the cartel was established after a Dutch towage firm entered the Hamburg scene, adding that all local towage companies had joined the cartel. The Rotterdam-headquartered company Kotug entered the Hamburg harbour towage market in 1996. Following the merger with Boskalis-owned Smit, the company now operates as Kotug Smit towage. In its announcement, the German body states that the investigation into “one company has not been concluded yet.”
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