The European Commission has found that MAN, Volvo/Renault, Daimler, Iveco, and DAF broke EU antitrust rules and colluded to keep prices artificially high at the expense of consumers.
The commission has imposed a record fine of € 2.926 billion (A$4.29 billion).
The commission notes: “These truck makers colluded for 14 years on truck pricing and on passing on the costs of compliance with stricter emission rules.”
MAN was not fined as it revealed the existence of the cartel to the commission. All companies acknowledged their involvement and agreed to settle the case.
Commissioner for competition Margrethe Vestager notes: “It is not acceptable that MAN, Volvo/Renault, Daimler, Iveco and DAF, which together account for around nine 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.”
The decision relates specifically to the market for the manufacturing of medium (weighing between 6 to 16 tonnes) and heavy trucks (weighing over 16 tonnes).
The commission’s investigation revealed that MAN, Volvo/Renault, Daimler, Iveco and DAF had engaged in a cartel relating to: coordinating prices at ‘gross list’ level for medium and heavy trucks in the European Economic Area (gross list price level is truck’s factory price as set by manufacturer and basis for pricing in the trucks industry); the timing for the introduction of emission technologies for medium and heavy trucks to comply with the increasingly strict European emission standards (from Euro III through to the currently applicable Euro VI); and the passing on to customers of the costs for the emission technologies required to comply with the increasingly strict European emission standards (from Euro III through to the currently applicable Euro VI).
The infringement covered the entire European Economic Area and lasted 14 years, from 1997 until 2011, when the commission carried out unannounced inspections of the firms. Between 1997 and 2004, meetings were held at senior manager level, sometimes at the margins of trade fairs or other events. This was complemented by phone conversations.
From 2004 onwards, the cartel was organised via the truck producers’ German subsidiaries, with participants generally exchanging information electronically.
