Company Fined for Price-Fixing on Ebay

Germany's antitrust regulator has a penalized a German firm for committing price fixing in an Internet auction. The country's Federal Cartel Office on Tuesday ordered battery manufacturer Ansmann Energy to pay a €100,000 ($115,000) fine for setting minimum prices for 18 dealers that sell Ansmann's products on the Internet auction house Ebay. "Prices must develop through competition, and dealers must be able to freely set their selling prices," the antitrust office's head Ulf Böge explained in Bonn on Tuesday.