Steel Firms to Pay Millions for Fixing Prices

German steel firms Salzgitter und Thyssen Stahl will have to pay millions in penalties for illegal price fixing in the 1990s after the European Court of Justice quashed the firms appeals on Thursday in Luxembourg. Salzgitter will have to pay €8.6 million ($10.1) plus interest, Thyssen Stahl owes €4.4 million and Krupp Hoesch Stahl must pay €9,000. The court annulled a fine Luxembourg's Arbed had been sentenced to pay. In 1994 the European Commission penalized the three firms and 14 other European steel companies a total of €104 million for fixing the prices of steel beams for Europe's construction industry.