The European Commission has fined Kingspan Group €40 million for supplying incorrect and misleading information during its review of the Irish building-materials company’s proposed acquisition of Trimo.
The decision concerns the Commission’s 2021 examination of Kingspan’s plan to buy the Slovenian maker of insulated panels. Brussels opened an in-depth investigation and Kingspan abandoned the transaction in April 2022 after the regulator raised competition concerns.
The Commission later began a separate inquiry into the accuracy of information Kingspan had provided during that review. It found that the company gave a misleading account of how it monitored market-penetration rates for mineral-fibre sandwich panels and of the bidding data available to it. The regulator also said Kingspan supplied incorrect information about the involvement of its board in monitoring those markets.
Merger control depends heavily on information supplied by the companies seeking clearance. EU law therefore permits a fine of up to one per cent of a company’s worldwide turnover when information is intentionally or negligently incorrect or misleading. That power remains available even when the underlying transaction is abandoned.
The fine is a final administrative decision by the Commission, separate from any ruling on whether the proposed acquisition itself would have breached competition law. Kingspan may ask the EU courts to review the decision and the amount of the penalty.
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