The EC said the cartel involved 11 producers of underground and submarine cables and operated for almost a decade from 1999. Six are from Europe, three from Japan and two from Korea.

“Part of this plan was to allocate important high voltage power cable projects in the European Economic Area (EEA), including large infrastructure and renewable energy projects such as offshore wind farms.”

Under the arrangement, cable producers in Europe and Asia agreed to “stay out of each other's home territories and most of the rest of the world would be divided amongst them”, the EC said.

Announcing the fines today, the EC said: “These companies shared markets and allocated customers between themselves on an almost worldwide scale.

"These companies knew very well that what...