The European Union
slapped a record fine of nearly three billion euros on Europe’s biggest
truck makers, accusing them of colluding to fix prices and dodge the
costs of stricter pollution rules.
Senior managers from
Daimler, DAF, Iveco, MAN and Volvo/Renault hatched the plan in a “cosy”
Brussels hotel and kept it going for 14 years, EU Competition
Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said.
“We are imposing the
highest fine ever for a single cartel, but there are good reasons for
this,” Vestager told a press conference.
“In particular this cartel involves a very large market and continued for a very long time.”
Germany’s
MAN tipped off the European Commission about the collusion at the
highest level, triggering an investigation that began with raids on
large truck manufacturers in 2011.
The five manufacturers account
for nine out of every 10 trucks sold in Europe, meaning that the case
had a major bearing on the operation of the free market in the EU,
Vestager said.
“Our investigations showed that a meeting in Brussels was the start of this long-lasting truck cartel,” Vestager said.
“The
first meeting… was organized right here in January 1997 in what seems
to be a cozy hotel and it was the beginning of a 14-year collusion,”
she said, adding that “senior managers” ran the cartel until 2004 when
it was organized at a lower level.
The
commission’s previous record of a 1.5-billion-euro ($1.7 billion) fine
dates back to 2012 when seven TV and computer screen makers, including
LG Electronics and Philips, were found guilty of running a decade-long
price-fixing scheme.
The charge sheet includes accusations of
price-fixing, but also alleges the existence of a secret agreement by
the companies to delay and then pass on the costs of anti-pollution
technology to consumers.
This accusation is particularly
embarrassing in the wake of revelations last year of pollution test
cheating by Volkswagen that has rocked the auto industry. The commission
said its investigation found no connection to the Volkswagen case.
Germany’s
Daimler received the biggest fine of 1 billion euros, followed by DAF
of the Netherlands at just above 750 million euros.
The fines
were in fact reduced from original estimations due to the companies’
cooperation and “take into consideration turnover of companies, length
and size of the market,” Vestager said.
A sixth company, Sweden’s Scania, has refused the commission’s settlement and an investigation is ongoing, she added.
MAN received full immunity for blowing the whistle on its fellow companies.
