We are taking cases on for the truck cartel here in the UK. Contact us for more information as soon as you can.
Companies involved in the truck cartel have received fines from the Commission of over 2.9 billion Euros – record amounts! The truck producers were found to have participated in a truck cartel involving medium to heavy trucks for a number of years.
The truck companies that were investigated in the 14 year cartel were DAF, Scania, MAN, Daimler, Iveco and Volvo/Renault. The cartel started in 1997 and only stopped in 2011. There are around 30 million trucks on the road, and as these truck companies’ vehicles account for most of them, they controlled a very large part of the market.
The Cartel
The cartel started at a meeting in Brussels by senior managers of the truck producers, who were fined by the Commission in Brussels.
The truck producers met regularly to manage the cartel for the first seven years. After 2004 this changed and the cartel became organised by the lower level subsidiaries in Germany where contact became more formal and information was exchanged over email.
What were they discussing?
One of the things that the companies discussed was their “gross list” price increases for the medium and heavy trucks. These price lists are the basis for pricing the truck industry. This meant that the final price the buyers would pay is based on further adjustments, done at national and local level to the gross price list. The truck producers would coordinate on increasing their gross list price of their trucks.
The second thing that the truck producers were discussing was how to respond to the strict European emissions standards that were increasing. As emissions standards had tightened, the truck companies were coordinating on the price for new technology that was needed to meet the new standards that would then pass the cost onto customers.
They also coordinated on when they would introduce new technology as well, which meant delaying it.
MAN – the whistle blower
It was MAN who alerted the Commission to the cartel which meant that, as a company, they did not have to pay a fine. This meant avoiding having to pay 1.2 billion Euros.
The other companies did cooperate and were given some leniency for providing evidence that helped prove the existence of the cartel. This meant their fines were reduced, but they were still huge fines, and they now face significant civil liabilities.
A further 10% reduction took place as the companies all admitted to their participation in the cartel which helps to free up resources to be used for other investigations. The companies have three months to pay their fines that will go into the EU budget and reduce the amount of contributions from EU countries for membership in the EU.
The decision
The decision was made in order to safeguard consumers and truck producers in the EU. By taking part in a cartel this was an infringement on EU law.
Source: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_STATEMENT-16-2585_en.htm