ThyssenKrupp won a 33% cut in an antitrust fine to EUR 319.78 million after a top European court said EU regulators had wrongly penalized the parent group and several subsidiaries.

EU's General Court said “The Court points out that the Commission had, in an earlier decision, made a finding of infringement solely against those companies, but not against their parent companies at the material time, of which ThyssenKrupp AG is the economic and legal successor.”

The court, Europe's second highest, said it was also not clear that several ThyssenKrupp subsidiaries penalized in a separate case could be considered repeat offenders in the elevator cartel.

The European Commission had fined the German industrial group and four other companies a total EUR 992.31 million in 2007 for running an escalator and lift cartel in Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. ThyssenKrupp's EUR 479.67 million euro fine was the largest. The Commission had increased by 50% the fines on the parent company and several of its subsidiaries for repeated offences.

(Sourced from Reuters)