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BUSINESS

Appliance kickbacks under investigation

Two of Germany’s biggest appliance makers, Bosch and Siemens, may have provided illegal kickbacks to retailers willing to push their goods to customers, according to a report in the latest issue of Der Spiegel.

Published: 15 August 2009 11:09 CEST
Appliance kickbacks under investigation
Photo: DPA

The allegations concern BSH, a joint venture between the German industrial giants, that sells household appliances such as washing machines, refrigerators and ranges. Last year, Munich-based BSH had 39,000 employees and revenues of €8.8 billion.

According to internal documents cited by Spiegel, BSH gave sales staff, including managers at large appliance retailers gift certificates good at retailer Karstadt or with travel agents TUI in exchange for pushing Bosch and Siemens products to customers.

The magazine says BSH spent more than €10 million a year on kickbacks and that the company’s top management, including CEO Kurt-Ludwig Gutberlet, was aware of the illegal practice.

The company confirmed Friday evening that Munich prosecutors were investigating its past marketing practices. A statement also said “possible unfair sales promotions practices from the past,” would be looked into by BSH’s internal compliance unit.

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CRIME

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country's leaders decried as a threat to democracy.

Published: 5 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.

Matthias Ecke, 41, European parliament lawmaker for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

Ecke was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

“We must never accept such acts of violence,” he said.

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police said a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had been “punched” and “kicked” earlier in the evening on the same Dresden street.

Last week two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and another was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators in her car in the east of the country.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

A group of activists against the far right has called for demonstrations against the attack on Ecke in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning to call a special conference with Germany’s regional interior ministers next week to address violence against politicians.

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