(Reuters) – The European Commission has fined Austrian rail company Osterreichische Bundesbahnen (OBB) and Czech peer Ceske drahy (CD) a total of 48.7 million euros ($52.5 million) for blocking a Czech rival’s market expansion, it said on Wednesday.
The commission said both companies had restricted competition by colluding to prevent a new entrant, RegioJet, from buying the used wagons it needed for its expansion.
Czech rail company RegioJet entered the long-distance rail passenger transport market in the Czech Republic in 2011, relying mainly on used wagons in order to compete with CD and OBB.
“Ceske drahy will continue to defend itself against the issued decision at EU judicial authorities,” the company said in a statement in which it called the decision flawed.
“(It) is convinced that the European Commission did not take into account all relevant facts, including that Ceske drahy did not enjoy any preferential treatment when purchasing used vehicles.”
The European Commission had sent a statement of objections setting out its charges to OBB and CD in 2022, in a case that started with the EU competition agency making dawn raids on the companies in June 2016.
($1 = 0.9275 euros)
(Reporting by Bart Meijer and Jason Hovet; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
