The European Commission announced on Wednesday that it was conducting unannounced inspections at the premises of companies in the sports synthetic turf sector suspected of anti-competitive practices in the EU.
The Commission, the guardian of competition in the European Union (EU), said it feared "that the companies inspected had breached the rules on cartels and dominant positions," in a statement.
These inspections were carried out in several Member States. "Commission officials were accompanied by their counterparts from national competition authorities," the EU executive said.
Unannounced inspections are a preliminary step in any investigation of alleged anti-competitive practices. They "do not mean that the company has been implicated" and do not prejudge the outcome of the investigation, the Commission stressed.
There is no legal deadline for finalizing these investigations. Their duration depends on the complexity of each case and the degree of cooperation of the companies concerned, the European Commission said.
