EU Court upholds Antitrust Authority fines for 14 banks

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) confirmed on Monday the fines imposed by the Competition Authority (AdC) on 14 banks in 2019 for violating competition, rejecting appeals filed against the regulator’s decision.

In a statement on today’s ruling, the CJEU said that “the exchange of information that took place over more than ten years between 14 Portuguese credit institutions may constitute a restriction of competition on the subject matter.”

The exchange concerns information on housing finance, consumer finance and corporate finance markets that “affects certain current and future conditions applicable to transactions, namely “spreads” and risk variables, as well as the individual production values ​​of the participants in this exchange.”

The Court considers that a restriction of competition may occur “where the information exchanged is confidential and strategic in the sense that this information may reveal the future behaviour of a competitor in the markets in question.”

The case, which became known as the “banking cartel”, was referred to the CJEU in May 2022 by the Competition, Regulation and Supervision Court to rule on whether the exchange of information had an impact on the consumer.

The Competition Court must now rule on the appeal against the AdC decision filed by the banks concerned.

On 9 September 2019, the AdC sentenced 14 banks to pay fines totalling €225 million for a concerted practice of sharing confidential commercial information over more than a decade, from 2002 to 2013.

The banks sentenced include BBVA, BIC (for actions carried out by the then BPN), BPI, BCP, BES, Banif, Barclays, CGD, Caixa Central de Crédito Agrícola Mútuo, Montepio, Santander (for actions carried out by it and for actions carried out by Banco Popular), Deutsche Bank and UCI.

Of these, only Banif and Deutsche Bank did not appeal the AdC decision.