• Denmark: The Competition Council finds Refusal to Supply and Restrictions to Parallel Trade
in Railway Spare Parts Sector
On 12 June 2013, the Danish Competition Council (DCC) ruled that Deutz AG (Deutz) and Diesel MotorNordic A/S (Diesel Motor Nordic) have infringed the Danish and European competition rules (Articles 101and 102 TFEU).According to the decision, Deutz abused its dominant position by preventing the supply of spare parts forthe IC3-trains, owned by the Danish State Railways, DSB, outside of its exclusive dealership network. Thespare parts were to be used in the renovation of 404 Deutz engines.The DCC also found that Deutz prevented parallel imports of spare parts for the IC3-trains in an agreementwith its distributor in Denmark, Diesel Motor Nordic. The latter, a Danish-Swedish company, was alsofound to have infringed the competition rules by participating in the anticompetitive agreement withDeutz.In 2010, DSB attempted to reach an agreement regarding renovation of the 404 Deutz engines with Deutzand Diesel Motor Nordic, but could not accept the price and conditions offered. Instead, DSB entered intoan agreement with a consortium of four smaller companies. However, the consortium could not meetthe terms of the agreement with DSB, because Deutz had blocked the delivery of spare parts, whichcould only be sourced through Deutz. Only in a few cases, the consortium managed to obtain spare partsfor DSB; partly by ordering a few parts at a time and partly by withholding information about where thespare parts would be used.Consequently, DSB could not use the competitive benefits of parallel trade in Europe and had to buy thespare parts at a higher price – some of these from the Danish Deutz distributor, Diesel Motor Nordic. DSBhas stated that the process has contributed to the breakdown of some of the engines in the IC3 trains,because they were not serviced in time.In this case, the DCC has benefited from good cooperation with the competition authorities in Germany,Sweden and the Netherlands. As a part of this cooperation, the DCC took part in inspections carried outin those countries and the evidence found contributed to establishing the infringement.The DCC has ordered Deutz and Diesel Motor Nordic to stop the anticompetitive behaviour and torefrain from behaviour, which has the same or similar anticompetitive effect. In addition that the DCChas ordered Deutz to inform its network of independent dealers of the decision.See decision in Danish and the English summaryContact: Head of Communication: Hanne Arentoft, e-mail: [email protected]/ phone number + 45 4171 5098