EC FINES DEUTSCHE POST 50,000 EURO FOR GIVING WRONG INFORMATION

   The European Commission fined Deutsche Post AG, the fast-growing German postal service and logistics group, 50,000 euro ($50,500) for supplying misleading information in competition procedures.
  The fine, the maximum permitted under the European merger regulation of 1989, is related to EC procedures for the proposed takeover by Deutsche Post of the German courier operator trans-o-flex GmbH.
   Deutsche Post notified the EC in February 1999 of its intention to acquire sole control over the German company. The EC said that, in the course of this investigation, "it became apparent that Deutsche Post had deliberately supplied incorrect and misleading information to deceive the Commission about its jurisdiction." Deutsche Post withheld information relevant in this context, the Brussels agency said.
   Deutsche Post withdrew this notification some weeks after the EC opened an in-depth investigation.
   The EC said that Deutsche Post’s intentional supply of incorrect and misleading information in its notification and incorrect information in replying to information requests constitutes "a serious infringement of two provisions of the Merger Regulation, which call for the imposition of two fines."
   A spokesman for Deutsche Post said that the company’s legal department is checking the case to establish how to react to the EC fine.
   Meanwhile, the German antitrust agency Bundeskartellamt has also launched an investigation in the matter.