Commission fines car manufacturers €875 million for restricting competition in emission cleaning

 

Commission fines car manufacturers €875 million for restricting competition in emission cleaning

The European Commission has found that Daimler, BMW and Volkswagen group (Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche) violated EU competition law by colluding on technical development in the area of nitrogen oxide cleaning.

The Commission imposed penalties of €875,189,000.

Daimler avoided a fine which would have amounted to around €727 million..  As the leniency applicant it revealed the existence of the cartel to the Commission.  

The Commission applied a reduction of 10% of the fines of all parties under the 2008 Settlement Notice in view of the acknowledgment of their participation in the cartel.

The Commission found that the parties colluded from June 2009 to October 2014 by indicating to each other that none of them would aim above the minimum standards required by law.  Interestingly the Commission abandoned some of its earlier allegations where it found insufficient evidence to substantiate them.  The Commission did not pursue that part of its case that the collusion also affected petrol cars.

The decision is aligned with the Commission’s Green Deal agenda even if it is not presented as such. However this does not mean that all cooperation on green technical development is a hardcore infringement and the Commission will need to provide guidance so as to distinguish what is flagrantly anti-competitive and what might be pro-competitive on a balancing of the benefits and risks to competition.

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_3581