Kingspan, the Irish building materials firm, has been fined €40m (£33.9m) by the European Commission for providing it with incorrect and misleading information during a competition investigation.
In 2021 Kingspan planned to take over Trimo, a rival manufacturer of insulating panels.
That required an investigation under European Union (EU) merger rules to make sure it would not lead to significantly reduced competition. The commission has concluded that Kingspan gave misleading information during that process.
In a statement, Kingspan said it noted the decision and would appeal it “in full”.
In 2022 Kingspan said it would not pursue the deal with Trimo after the watchdog said it could lead to higher prices.
The commission then opened an investigation to examine whether Kingspan had provided incorrect and misleading information.
An interim conclusion said Kingspan had broken the rules on six separate grounds with Thursday’s final judgement reducing that to four breaches.
It was fined €10m (£8.5m) for each breach.