The Competition Authority has sanctioned six companies suspected of“agreement” in operations to dismantle nuclear sites in Marcoule (Gard), for a total amount of 31 million euros, announced the authority on its website, Thursday September 7.
The decision published Thursday targets six companies active in “the sector of engineering, maintenance, dismantling and nuclear waste treatment services” :
- Nuvia Process (subsidiary of the Vinci group);
- Endel (former subsidiary of Engie);
- Bouygues Construction Nuclear Expertise (BCEN);
- ONET (subsidiary of the OTND group);
- SNEF;
- SPIE Nuclear.
The sanctions were imposed according to the seriousness of the facts: 13.9 million for Nuvia, 11 million for Endel (now a subsidiary of Altrad), 6.2 million for BCEN, 20,000 euros for SNEF and 10,000 euros for SPIE . In total, the amount of sanctions amounts to 31.239 million euros. ONET benefited from a “leniency procedure”, process during which a company having participated in a cartel agrees to disclose its existence to the authority. As a nuclear service provider, it provided elements for the investigation, subsequently supplemented by visits, seizures and hearings, allowing it to escape sanctions.
The Bouygues group did not wish to comment and the other companies contacted by Agence France-Presse (Engie and Vinci) did not respond.
“Among the most serious infringements of competition rules”
Concretely, the authority reproaches them “to have exchanged commercially sensitive information with a view to responding to certain calls for tenders organized by the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) for various installations” on its nuclear site in Marcoule, “and this in order to agree on the price levels to offer and to share the markets”.
These practices “anti-competitive” were “structured” And “secret outfits”indicated the authority, noting for example that “some participants” used personal email addresses or those belonging to their family circle. “Such practices are among the most serious infringements of competition rules because they aim to confiscate, for the benefit of the perpetrators of the infringement, the advantages that consumers and the public are entitled to expect from competitive functioning. economy “commented the gendarme.
Nuclear site dismantling operations, which can take decades, represent a colossal market. As envisaged by EDF, the Orano group (ex-Areva) and the CEA, the cost of dismantling amounted to 46.4 billion euros at the end of 2018, according to a report by the Court of Auditors in 2020.