The EU court confirmed on Wednesday confirmed the violation of free competition allegedly against the Crédit Suisse, now integrated into the UBS banking group, for practices dating back to 2011-2012, but reduced the amount of the fine imposed by Brussels. This fine is reduced from 83.2 million euros to 28.9 million, specifies in a press release the jurisdiction established in Luxembourg, which points to a poor method of calculation of the European Commission.
However, the court “Confirms the participation of Crédit Suisse in an agreement in the cash exchange operations sector”he underlined. The parent company UBS, which had seized the justice of the EU to have the sanctions canceled, is dismissed on the merits. The means it has invoked to challenge the decision of the European Commission “Are not founded”slice the court. UBS has the possibility of forming an appeal limited to law issues.
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“Erroneous” calculation
In a several -stage survey, the European Commission had inflicted a total of more than 344 million euros in fines on five banks that can be fulfilled on the exchange operations market, between May 2011 and July 2012, at the time of Credit Suisse, UBS (the two were distinct entities) and three British British establishments, HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland ( Natwest).
This survey revealed that traders responsible for exchange operations in cash on certain currencies, acting on behalf of the banks punishable and supposed to be in competition, were in fact coordinated in their negotiation strategies. Their exchanges were based on professional discussion forums. Among the five banks, Crédit Switzerland had been the only one to refuse to cooperate in the investigation, the court recalls. The bank had been inflicted a fine in a separate decision, without benefiting from the reductions provided for by leniency procedures.
Ultimately, the initial calculation fixing the fine at 83.2 million euros was “wrong”according to the court. He considers that the Commission should have referred to the data produced by the Swiss credit on the value of sales resulting from the anti -competitive agreement.