The European Commission has fined General Electric (GE) €52m for providing incorrect information during the former’s investigation under the EU Merger Regulation of the latter’s acquisition of LM Wind Power.
The decision has no impact on the commission’s approval of the acquisition under EU merger rules, as this was “based on rectified information from the second notification”, the commission said.
According to the Merger Regulation, the Commission can impose fines of up to 1% of the aggregated turnover of companies, which intentionally or negligently provide incorrect or misleading information.
The Commission said that the EU Merger Regulation obliges companies in a merger investigation to provide correct and non-misleading information.
It said that on 11 January 2017, GE made notification of the proposed acquisition of LM Wind.
The Commission said that in the notification, GE stated that it did not have any higher power output wind turbine for offshore applications in development, beyond its existing 6MW turbine.
But through information collected from a third party, the Commission found that GE was simultaneously offering a 12MW offshore wind turbine to potential customers, the Commission added.
GE subsequently withdrew the first notification on 2 February 2017, and re-notified the same transaction on 13 February, including information on the future turbine project, the EU institution said.
The Commission approved the proposed acquisition on 20 March.
Competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said: “Our merger assessment and decision-making can only be as good as the information that we obtain to support it.
“Accurate information is essential for the Commission to take competition decisions in full knowledge of the facts.
“The fine imposed today on General Electric is proof that the Commission takes breaches of the obligation for companies to provide us with correct information very seriously.”
In response a GE spokesman said: “We have been notified of the adoption of the EC decision and we are reviewing it in detail before determining our next actions.”
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