Earlier this year, Commissioner Vestager issued the biggest cartel fine in history.
After a group of truck manufacturers were found guilty of colluding on price fixing and on passing on the costs of compliance with stricter emission rules, the spotlight on cartels is stronger than ever.
MAN, Volvo/Renault, Daimler, Iveco and DAF conspired over 14 years in relation to the particulars below:
- Coordinating prices at "gross list" level for medium and heavy trucks in the European Economic Area (EEA). The "gross list" price level relates to the factory price of trucks, as set by each manufacturer. Generally, these gross list prices are the basis for pricing in the trucks industry. The final price paid by buyers is then based on further adjustments, done at national and local level, to these gross list prices.
- The timing for the introduction of emission technologies for medium and heavy trucks to comply with the increasingly strict European emissions standards (from Euro III through to the currently applicable Euro VI)
- The passing on to customers of the costs for the emissions technologies required to comply with the increasingly strict European emissions standards (from Euro III through to the currently applicable Euro VI).
In justifying her record €2,926,499,000 fine, Vestager stated:
“In all, there are over 30 million trucks on European roads, which account for around three quarters of inland transport of goods in Europe and play a vital role for the European economy. It is not acceptable that MAN, Volvo/Renault, Daimler, Iveco and DAF, which together account for around 9 out of every 10 medium and heavy trucks produced in Europe, were part of a cartel instead of competing with each other. For 14 years they colluded on the pricing and on passing on the costs for meeting environmental standards to customers. This is also a clear message to companies that cartels are not accepted."
You can learn about cartel cases, enforcement, Commission interaction and much more at our Cartels: Risk and Compliance 2016 conference.
This event takes place on 28th September 2016 in Belgium, Brussels.
The agenda can be viewed on the event website here.
If you have any questions regarding the CompLaw blog, please email Lorna Mackinnon via lorna.mackinnon@informa.com.
