As the victim of illegal price agreements between steel producers, Deutsche Bahn (DB) has to wait a long time for compensation from the Czech Republic.

As the mobility and logistics group announced at the weekend, a civil chamber at the Frankfurt Regional Court (LG) dismissed the lawsuit brought by the subsidiary DB Netz and other DB companies against the Czech manufacturer Moravia Steel at the beginning of the month.

In the proceedings, which have been ongoing since 2012, the plaintiffs are demanding EUR 133 million plus interest from the supplier.

Due to serious errors in the facts and the legal assessment in the judgment of August 3, the DB companies want to appeal promptly (Az. 2-06 O 649/21).

Marcus Young

Editor in Business.

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Ten years ago, DB Netz in Frankfurt filed a lawsuit originally amounting to 376 million euros, including claims assigned by the federal government, the states and other injured parties.

Due to various comparisons, this requirement was reduced, but no agreement was reached with Moravia.

The railway apparently felt confirmed by the judiciary in its course.

In 2020, the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court decided that the Czech parent company was also liable in the rail cartel.

But now the disillusionment: The initial instance, in turn, sees claims against Moravia Steel as statute-barred.

Bahn employees should have discovered the agreements in 2007, and the group had to be blamed for this as gross negligence.

The Bahn Group rejects this in a statement: "The companies organized the cartel with great effort, carried it out, kept it secret with organized crime methods and enriched themselves in the process." The judgment would be in "blatant contradiction" to the Supreme Court's case law.

Judgment reverses roles

Damage from individual procurement processes would have to be considered as independent claims.

According to the plaintiffs, at least claims from the year 2008 would not have become statute-barred.

If the verdict is upheld, the railways say, taxpayers would be burdened and companies involved in the cartel would be favored - the decision "reversed the roles of perpetrators and victims".

Deutsche Bahn and its subsidiaries see themselves as the main victims of the rail cartel, which had agreed on prices and delivery quotas for rails for years.

For the period from 2001 to 2011, according to the company's own information, damage in the billions is assumed.

In 2012 and 2013, the Federal Cartel Office imposed fines of 134.5 million euros on Moravia and other manufacturers.