Luxembourg, July 29, 2024 (Lusa) - The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on Monday upheld the fines imposed by Portugal's Competition Authority on 14 banks in 2019 for competition violations, rejecting the appeals lodged against the regulator's decision.

In a statement on today's judgement, the CJEU said that ‘the exchange of information that took place over more than a decade between 14 credit institutions in Portugal may constitute a restriction of competition by object’.

At issue is the exchange of information concerning the mortgage, consumer and corporate credit markets, which ‘concerned certain current and future conditions applicable to the transactions, in particular spreads and risk variables, as well as the individualised production values of the participants in that exchange’.

The court considers that there may be a restriction of competition ‘when the information exchanged is confidential and strategic in the sense that this information is likely to reveal the future behaviour of a competitor in the markets concerned’.

On 9 September 2019, the Competition Authority ordered 14 banks to pay fines totalling €225 million for a concerted practice of exchanging sensitive commercial information over a period of more than ten years, between 2002 and 2013.

The convicted banks are BBVA, BIC (for acts carried out by the then BPN), BPI, BCP, BES, Banif, Barclays, CGD, Caixa Central de Crédito Agrícola Mútuo, Montepio, Santander (for acts carried out by itself and by Banco Popular), Deutsche Bank and UCI.

Of these, only Banif and Deutsche Bank have not appealed against the Competition Authority's decision.

IG/ADB // ADB.

Lusa