A US judge has accepted a motion for summary judgment from three helicopter transport companies facing a price fixing lawsuit, after new evidence failed to prove an antitrust infringement.

Six construction companies have received a 75 per cent reduction in fines imposed by the UK’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) for cover pricing, reducing them from a combined £15.5 million to £3.78 million.

South Africa’s Competition Commission has referred a suspected cartel in the steel pilings market to the country’s Competition Tribunal. It has also announced a settlement with steel company Aveng on separate cartel charges in the supply of wire mesh and reinforcing bars.

China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) has published its first enforcement decision since the country’s Antimonopoly Law came into force in August 2008. It fined a construction association and several of its members for market allocation.

South Africa’s Competition Commission today invited construction companies that have been party to bid rigging or other collusive activity to settle via a ‘fast-track’ procedure.

Construction and mining company Caterpillar has announced it is buying US rival Bucyrus International, subject to antitrust approval.

The UK’s Office of Fair Trading says it has opened an investigation of competition in the country’s aggregates market after receiving complaints about the sector.

Dutch construction companies have failed in their challenge against the the competition authority's use of fast-track measures in the 2004 construction cartel case.

Construction company Kier has launched an appeal against the UK Office of Fair Trading’s £17.9 million fine imposed on it for bid rigging. Lawyers say the appeal could have repercussions for the OFT’s future fining policy.

Hungary’s Competition Authority has fined four construction companies more than €25 million for bid rigging in the country’s railway maintenance sector.