Five UK copper fitting manufacturers were part of an illegal price-fixing cartel that was fined a total of £212 million by the European Commission today.

The cartel of 30 producers broke EU competition law by colluding on price discounts, rebates and the timing of price rises for 16 years, the European Commission said.

The cartel also exchanged commercially important and confidential information in what Neelie Kroes, Competition Commissioner, said was a very serious infringement of the EU Treaty.

The cartel was uncovered after America’s Mueller group, a member, decided to take advantage of the EU’s "Leniency Notice" to cooperate in exposing the other members.

As a result Mueller’s fine was cancelled today, and several other cartel members had their fines reduced, including the UK’s IMI and Delta groups. IMI was fined £32.4 million and Delta £19 million.

A third UK participant, Advanced Fluid Connections, was fined £12.2 million. It cooperated with Brussels but received no fine reduction "as the information was misleading", according to a Commission statement.

The two other UK companies involved were Tomkins, fined £3.5 million, and Flowflex, fined £907,000.

Ms Kroes, who has cracked down on cartels in the chemicals and tobacco markets since taking office in 2004, said the copper fittings cartel had clearly pushed up prices for business and retail customers.

"We will not tolerate cartels and will take all measures to stamp them out. We will not only punish firms severely for cartel behaviour, but also increase the fines for flagrantly continuing after a commission dawn raid and for providing wrong or misleading information," she said.

Aalberts Industries of the Netherlands, which received the largest penalty at £67 million, is the only company to have said formally that it plans to appeal the decision.

The total fine of £212 million is the fifth largest ever imposed by the Commission on a single cartel.

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