ACTIONS CORNER

After an EU ruling, Salzgitter must now pay back millions of state aid. The Luxembourg EU court on 22 January dismissed the steel and technology company’s action against a European Commission decision. The judgment can be appealed, according to a court spokesman. Predecessors and subsidiaries of the steel company had received aid in the eighties and nineties, based on aid to border regions. The judges did not mention an amount, but earlier indications are in the double-digit millions.

A steel cartel around ThyssenKrupp is said to have cheated municipal transport companies throughout Germany in more than 100 cases. The cartel is suspected of having in the last three decades, along with other suppliers, secretly agreed prices for tracks and switches, so relieving Deutsche Bahn and many municipal transport companies of a lot of money. The state-owned company had filed a lawsuit against ThyssenKrupp and other rail manufacturers for illegal price fixing at the end of 2012, and is claiming damages in the millions.