Chillin'Competition

In contemporary antitrust law, price-fixers have enjoyed a somewhat “gentlemanesque” image.

Price-fixers, as the story goes, would typically be well-instructed managers, who would convene in the smoked-filled rooms of luxury hotels, drink Cognac and exchange views about prices, politics and philosophy.

But since yesterday, the masks have fallen, revealing the true face of XXIst century price fixers.

According to this website, and as reported by the Handelsblatt:

“the Steel managers who were fixing prices and dividing up the railway track market took Deutsche Bahn employees to brothels after talking business over dinner, spending more than €71,000 on “entertaining” over five years“.

The bottom-line (courtesy of a good friend met yesterday at RBB’s party): “Germans always put business before pleasure“.