Final Report of the Hearing Officer (1)

COMP/39.452 — Mountings for windows and window doors

2012/C 292/04

This case concerns a cartel between nine producers of mountings for windows and window doors, the aim of which was to co-ordinate annually price increases on an EEA-wide level between 1999 and 2007.

BACKGROUND

Subsequent to an immunity application under the Leniency Notice from the company Roto Frank AG, unannounced inspections were carried out in July 2007. Following these inspections the Commission received further applications under the Leniency Notice from the undertakings Gretsch-Unitas GmbH and Mayer & Co Beschläge GmbH. The Commission granted conditional immunity to Roto Frank in June 2007.

WRITTEN PROCEDURE

Statement of Objections

Following the above-mentioned leniency applications and a subsequent investigation, the Commission, on 16 June 2010, issued a Statement of Objections (SO) which was addressed to 14 legal entities belonging to nine groups of undertakings (2). In the SO, the Commission reached the preliminary conclusion that the addressees had participated in a single and continuous infringement of Article 101 TFEU and Article 53 of the EEA agreement between 1999 and 2007 by coordinating annual price increases within the EEA. The Commission announced its intention to adopt an infringement decision and impose fines pursuant to Articles 7 and 23 of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003.

Access to file

The addressees received access to the file through a CD-ROM which they received on 5 July 2010. In addition, access to corporate statements was granted at Commission premises.

The parties did not address any issues concerning access to file to me.

Extensions to deadline for reply to SO

The addressees of the SO were originally granted a time period of eight weeks from the receipt of the CD-ROM file to provide their written comments on the SO.

Several parties made requests to me for further extensions, which I partly accepted. Based on the respective parties’ justifications the extensions ranged from one to three additional weeks, the latter extension mainly having been granted to allow for translation of the investigation file, which was largely comprised of documents in a language foreign to the applicant party.

All addressees responded on time.

As Strenger had changed its legal form in September 2010 by way of legal succession and was also renamed, the Commission informed Strenger of the fact that the decision will be addressed to the new entity and granted Strenger the opportunity to submit comments.

ORAL PROCEDURE

Oral Hearing

All undertakings subject to the proceedings exercised their right to he heard in an oral hearing, which took place on 19 October 2010.

THE DRAFT DECISION

Following the addressees’ written and oral submissions, the Commission has retained its objections against all nine groups of undertakings but has dropped its objections against three legal entities, one belonging to each of Maco, Fuhr and Siegenia. With regard to the Italian company AGB, the duration of its infringement has been reduced by approximately eight months and covers only the territory of Italy.

In my opinion the draft Decision relates only to objections in respect of which the parties have been afforded the opportunity to make known their views.

I consider that the right to be heard of all participants to the proceedings has been respected in this case.

(1)  Pursuant to Article 16 of Decision 2011/695/EU of the President of the European Commission of 13 October 2011 on the function and terms of reference of the hearing officer in certain competition proceedings (OJ L 275, 20.10.2011, p. 29).

(2)  Roto Frank AG (Roto), Gretsch-Unitas GmbH, Gretsch-Unitas GmbH Baubeschläge (Gretsch- Unitas), Mayer & Co Beschläge GmbH, Dipl. Ing. Ernst Mayer'sche Privatstiftung (Maco), Siegenia-Aubi KG, Siegenia-Frank Verwaltungs-GmbH, NORAA GmbH (Siegenia), Aug. Winkhaus GmbH & Co. KG (Winkhaus), Hautau GmbH (Hautau), Heinrich Strenger GmbH (Strenger), Carl Fuhr GmbH & Co. KG, Fuhr Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH (Fuhr), Alban Giacomo SpA (AGB).