Cementos Portland Valderrivas hit with €1.3 million fine

Spain's competition authority, the Comisión Nacional de la Competencia (CNC), has imposed a penalty of €1.3 million on cement producer Cementos Portland Valderrivas (CPV).

The fine was imposed because CPV breached its duty to collaborate with CNC in the wake of the 2007 exposure of CPV's involvement in a price fixing cartel, for which CNC fined it €5.7 million at the time.

CNC said the cement producer supplied it with "incomplete, incorrect, misleading or false information" concerning sales, manufacturing volumes and its corporate structure.

In a statement, the antitrust authority said, "The CNC Council decided to fine Cementos Portland Valderrivas after assessing the seriousness of the infringement and its impact on [the cartel case], in which the company obstructed the CNC's investigation and resolution of the case by sending partial and self-interested information in response to the CNC's requests, which influenced the calculation of the fine ultimately imposed on it."