SKF was one of six bearing manufacturers involved in the investigation, which looked into violations of European competition rules with respect to sales of bearings to the automotive manufacturing industry in Europe. The settlement decision found that SKF’s top management had no involvement or knowledge of the conduct in question.
The company has agreed to pay €315,109,000 (around SEK 2.8 billion), covered by the earlier announced provision made by SKF in its 2013 Q4 results.
"This is a very sad day indeed for all of us in the SKF Group and I deeply regret that this has happened," said Tom Johnstone, SKF President & CEO. "While we strongly believe that no damage has been caused to our business partners, this conduct is in clear violation of our values and the SKF code of conduct.
“SKF has cooperated fully with the authorities during the investigation and at the same time we have significantly intensified our compliance and training programmes throughout the SKF Group. What happened was unacceptable and should never happen again.”
