Truck Cartel update: now Scania is fined €880 million for participating in the cartel

Following the July 2016 decision to impose fines totalling almost €3 billion on MAN, DAF, Daimler, Iveco and Volvo/Renault, the European Commission has imposed a fine of €880 million on Scania for breach of EU antitrust rules.

This is because ‘It colluded for 14 years with five other truck manufacturers on truck pricing and on passing on the costs of new technologies to meet stricter emission rules.’

The decision was announced on 27 September 2017. It means that claims can now be brought against Scania by those individuals and businesses affected.

The case is different from those of the other manufactures because Scania did not settle the case. According to the Commission Scania chose not to cooperate during the investigation and thereby could not benefit from a fine reduction.

The Commission’s investigation revealed that Scania had engaged in a cartel relating to the manufacturing of medium (weighing between 6 to 16 tons) and heavy trucks (weighing over 16 tons) and the infringements covered the entire EEA and lasted 14 years, from 1997 until 2011, by:

• 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 setting the fine, the Commission ‘took into account Scania’s sales of heavy trucks in the EEA, as well as the serious nature of the infringement, the high combined market share of all participating companies, the geographic scope and the duration of the cartel.’

Ashtons Road Transport and Regulatory team, which Tim Ridyard heads, can help those who believe they may have been affected by the price-fixing and it is anticipated these such cases will be funded on a no-win no-fee basis, meaning there will be no need to provide funds as the case progresses.