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Spain: Prosegur & Loomis slapped with €46 million fine over market sharing

By  |  November 22, 2016

Spanish competition regulator CNMC has slapped high-end security companies Loomis and Prosegur with a €46.6 million fine, with additional charges against two company directors for €52,600 each, over uncompetitive practices carried out between 2008 and 2015 in the Security Logistics sector.

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    The CNMC investigation determined that these companies had engaged in customer allocation and price-fixing deals, including exchanging confidential information over 7 years, affecting the Security Logistics or ‘cash’ transfer market. The agency has brought charges over a strategic division of customers, with contract bids being divided among the two, as well as a strategy of customer preservation that made abusive and illegitimate use of sub-contracting procedures.

    “The customer allocation has allowed Prosegur and Loomis to eliminate any competitive pressure between them, preserving and maintaining their unaltered relative position within the market over a prolonged period and preventing the arrival or expansion of new competitors, despite the efforts of their potential customers to promote competition among other service providers” said the CNMC’s press release.

    The activities performed by these companies are, because of their complexity and importance, only performed by four companies throughout Spain. The logistics business includes armored car transfers, secure storage of valuables and handling of vast quantities of cash.

    Full Content: El Mundo

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