Spain: CNMC fines on companies double in 2018

Spain’s National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC) last year doubled the sanctions against companies for damages against free competition. The body chaired by José María Marín Quemada has imposed fines for almost €225 million (US$256.4 million), compared to €138 million (US$157.3 million) collected the previous year. This is the second heaviest exercise in fines by the CNMC for practices against free competition since Marín Quemada arrived, after breaking all the records in 2015.

The increase, which reverses two years of decrease in the amount collected, is mainly due to two specific cases: The first, the four large Spanish banks, sanctioned in February with a total of €91 million (US$103.7 million) “to be arranged for offer interest rate derivatives under conditions different from those agreed with customers, in which it was specified that they would be contracted under “market conditions.”

The second important case is the sanction to the parcel industry, imposed in March. The CNMC fined nearly ten million parcel companies with almost €70 million euros (US$79.8 million) for dividing the customers among themselves.

Full Content: OK Diario

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