--- title: "Bundeskartellamt verhängt Bußgelder im DSK-Straßenreparatursektor in Deutschland; Gesamtsumme ca. 60,3 Mio Euro" sdDatePublished: "2026-08-07T08:11:00Z" source: "https://www.bundeskartellamt.de/SharedDocs/Meldung/EN/Pressemitteilungen/2026/06_08_26_DSK.html" topics: - name: "antitrust regulations" identifier: "medtop:20000123" - name: "road transport" identifier: "medtop:20000341" - name: "infrastructure projects" identifier: "medtop:20001245" - name: "public contract" identifier: "medtop:20001159" - name: "corruption" identifier: "medtop:20000093" locations: - "Meppen" - "Köln" - "Kassel" - "Kaiserslautern" - "Germany" --- Bundeskartellamt verhängt Bußgelder im DSK-Straßenreparatursektor in Deutschland; Gesamtsumme ca. 60,3 Mio Euro Bundeskartellamt - Homepage - Fines imposed for cartel agreements in the sector for road maintenance using DSK Fines imposed for cartel agreements in the sector for road maintenance using DSK The Bundeskartellamt has imposed fines totalling around 60.3 million euros for concluding customer allocation and price-fixing agreements as well as bid-rigging in the DSK ( Dünne Asphaltdeckschichten in Kaltbauweise ) sector. DSK, a form of cold-applied ultra-thin surfacing, is a road maintenance technique for rehabilitating roads and other asphalt surfaces. The companies participating in the agreements were AS Asphaltstraßensanierung GmbH ( AS ), Langwedel , BITUNOVA GmbH (Bitunova), Cologne, Kutter Spezialstraßenbau GmbH & Co. KG (Kutter), Hanau, Possehl Construction GmbH ( Possehl ), Sprendlingen, Liesen…alles für den Bau GmbH (Liesen), Lingen, as well as OAT GmbH , Bietigheim , and Otto Alte-Teigeler GmbH (OAT), Bietigheim, which belong to the same company. Another company participating in the agreements, VSI Sanierungs- und Baugesellschaft mbH (VSI), Kaiserslautern , was merged into Possehl during the investigation proceedings; the fine was imposed on the legal successor. Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt : “For many years the leading DSK providers in Germany funnelled a great number of public contracts to each other. They had agreed that, as a general rule, all future DSK contracts for a specific customer should go to the provider that first secured that customer for the DSK construction method. When one of the companies involved did not operate at capacity and needed additional contracts, they deviated from this “regular customer” rule in individual cases or formed a consortium to divide the contract among several providers. In this way the companies carved up the market and used cover bids to maintain this arrangement. The cartel affected an important part of Germany’s public infrastructure and thus ultimately investments by the federal government, the Länder and local authorities in their capacity as road authorities.” From 2010 onwards, Kutter, Bitunova, Possehl and OAT allocated DSK customers and their contracts among themselves throughout Germany. VSI, Liesen and AS later joined the cartel. The companies regularly coordinated their bids for public and sometimes also private tenders. They agreed beforehand which company was to win a contract and what minimum price the cover bids had to exceed. To do so, they maintained regular contact and met approximately once per month during the season, that is, in spring and summer. The coordination meetings usually took place at a central location in Germany, very frequently in Kassel . When required, they additionally shared the fixed prices via phone, email or messenger services (WhatsApp, Signal), usually in code language. For example, prices were communicated in the form of metre or kilometre specifications, sausage or beer prices, sponsorship amounts, numbers of participants, hotel room prices or prices for events (football, carnival). In some cases, they disguised the fixed prices as requests for subcontracted works, such as crack repair and asphalt milling. The infringements concerned numerous tenders and contracts awarded by public contracting authorities throughout Germany, as well as by private contracting entities such as airport, port and test track operators. This included both contracts for large DSK pavers and contracts for small DSK pavers and hand laying. The companies involved ended their arrangements in September 2019. The “DSK” proceeding arose from the “road repairs” proceeding ( see press release of 13 May 2025 ), as part of which the Bundeskartellamt had carried out dawn raids together with the Düsseldorf Public Prosecution Office and North Rhine-Westphalia’s Criminal Police Office. The dawn raids gave rise to the suspicion of cartel agreements in the DSK sector, leading to further dawn raids carried out in September 2020 and March 2021. Throughout the proceeding the Bundeskartellamt worked closely with the authorities responsible for prosecuting individuals who, on behalf of the companies, participated in the arrangements in cases involving suspected criminal offences under Section 298 of the German Criminal Code ( StGB ) (collusive tendering). VSI, Bitunova, Kutter and AS cooperated with the Bundeskartellamt under the leniency programme. This was taken into account as a mitigating factor in the calculation of the fines. All proceedings could be concluded by way of settlement. The decisions imposing the fines are final. A case summary in accordance with Section 53(5) of the German Competition Act ( GWB ) will be published shortly on the Bundeskartellamt’s website. Bußgelder wegen Kartellabsprachen im Bereich Straßenreparatur mit DSK press releases 06.08.2026 Learn more Bußgelder wegen Kartellabsprachen im Bereich Straßenreparatur mit DSK