BRUSSELS, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- European Union (EU) regulators have fined three companies a total of 68 million euros (73 million U.S. dollars) for fixing prices for purchasing scrap automotive batteries, which is in breach of the bloc's antitrust rules.
The involved companies were Belgium's Campine, Eco-Bat Technologies from Britain, and France's Recylex, the EU announced Wednesday.
A fourth company, Johnson Controls, from the United States, was not fined because it revealed the cartel to the European Commission, the EU's executive body.
The four companies, between 2009 and 2012, agreed to lower the prices they paid to buy scrap batteries in Germany, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, exchanged information and agreed on target prices, maximum prices and volumes to buy from suppliers, said Margrethe Vestager, the EU Commissioner in charge of competition.
EU data showed almost 99 percent of the bloc's car batteries were recycled and around 58 million automotive batteries were recycled in the EU every year.
