The encyclopedia · Legal & Compliance · Legal decision · 2026
STRABAG's Austrian cartel fine more than trebles to a record €146 million
The construction giant's 2002–2017 bid-rigging penalty grew from €45.4m to €146m after the authorities pushed for more — Austria's largest antitrust fine
STRABAG · 2026-03-11
What happened
In March 2026 Austria raised STRABAG's cartel penalty to €146 million — the largest antitrust fine ever issued in the country. The total more than trebled from the €45.37 million imposed in 2021 after the authorities pressed for a higher penalty.
The fine covers a construction cartel that ran from 2002 to 2017, in which the group coordinated price fixing, shared markets and exchanged sensitive information on tenders for building and civil-engineering projects.
The added €100.63 million followed the Austrian Federal Competition Authority seeking a harsher penalty. The case had already been sent back for fresh consideration after the Supreme Court ordered the earlier ruling reheard in 2023, and STRABAG accepted the increase rather than face further litigation.
The ruling brought the fine to the maximum available under turnover-based penalties, and made it the largest competition penalty on record in Austria, displacing the previous high of €62.35 million on the PORR Group.
Why it happened
- STRABAG joined a 15-year price-fixing and market-sharing cartel in one of the country's biggest procurement fields, and the eventual bill grew with every year it stayed in
- Counting on leniency and a first settlement to cap the damage was not a durable shield — the penalty was still raised to a record level once the authorities pushed for more
The lesson
A long-running cartel is a long-running liability: the fine can keep growing years after the conduct ends, and pleading that it happened long ago is no defence against a penalty that keeps rising
Aftermath
STRABAG accepted the increased fine to avoid further litigation. The case is the largest competition penalty on record in Austria, and the authority pointed to leniency and settlements as the tools that had surfaced the cartel.
Sources
- Antitrust Intelligence — Austria imposes record €146 million cartel fine on STRABAG
- Global Construction Review — STRABAG cartel fine more than trebles to €146m after leniency status unravels
spotted an error? The club wants to know.
More like this
Vetements spent six years fighting to trademark its own name — and lost
Amazon's €746M GDPR record fine was scrapped on a technicality
AliExpress got a €550M EU fine — the DSA's first big test landed on Alibaba
Somewhere, someone solved the problem this company failed at. 2nd Opinion →
Comments · 0
Sign in to join the comments.