Voestalpine : reaction to today’s announcement by the German Bundeskartellamt on the subject of the “Special steel cartel”

The violations were discovered within the Group as the result of routine audits which are undertaken regularly as part of the compliance organization. This proves that the voestalpine AG compliance system is working. The origins of the events lie in the distant past. After their discovery they were thoroughly assessed by voestalpine AG, and then disclosed to the Bundeskartellamt. The employees mainly involved no longer work at voestalpine Group.

The members of the Management Board of voestalpine AG were neither involved in these violations, nor were they aware of them. During the process of assessing the facts, voestalpine has comprehensively reevaluated all its association memberships and activities, and reduced them to a necessary minimum.

voestalpine is currently examining whether customers of the Group companies affected might have suffered as a result of these events. Here it should be noted that the levying of transparent and uniform surcharges was often supported or even demanded by customers.