As already reported in the letter to shareholders for the first quarter of 2013/14, the German Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) concluded the monetary penalty proceedings associated with the so-called rail cartel with its decision on July 23, 2013 with regard to the portion of the proceedings concerning the private market. The “private market” portion of the rail cartel case concerns deliveries of rails and railway superstructure material to municipal mass transit agencies as well as industrial customers and construction companies. For this portion of the proceedings, a fine in the amount of EUR 6.4 million was imposed upon the voestalpine Group. Back in July 2012, the German Federal Cartel Office concluded the proceedings relative to violations of antitrust laws by way of agreements for the supply of railway superstructure material that were detrimental to Deutsche Bahn AG (fine in the amount of EUR 8.5 million for the voestalpine Group). Within the scope of the monetary penalty proceedings, fines totaling EUR 14.9 million were imposed on voestalpine companies. Otherwise, voestalpine’s status of cooperating witness was confirmed for the major part of both proceedings.
As far as claims for compensatory damages by customers for deliveries by the cartel are concerned, claims by Deutsche Bahn for direct deliveries of rails were resolved in May 2013 by way of payment of damages. Claims for compensatory damages for indirect deliveries of rails to Deutsche Bahn as well as deliveries to municipal mass transit agencies and other private market customers are still unresolved.
The provisions created for the antitrust proceedings and associated actions and costs as well as for the closure of TSTG Schienen Technik GmbH & Co KG in the annual financial statements 2012/13 in the amount of EUR 204.4 million were mainly reduced by the amount paid to compensate Deutsche Bahn for direct rail deliveries, and by the fine for deliveries of turnouts to customers in Germany as of September 30, 2013. The remaining provisions are still considered to be appropriate.