A few hours after the truce proposal for the fines on emissionsthe European Union returns to sanction the car manufacturers. This time, however, it is aAntitrust survey long -lasting. The accusation, admitted by all the companies involved, is to have created a recycling sign of used cars through the European car manufacturers association Acea.
Practically all companies operating in the sector in Europe and were part, Between 2002 and 2017of Acea were fined, for figures ranging from millions to tens of millions of euros. Only Mercedes-Benz was saved, who denounced the sign.
The sign on car recycling
The European Commission has established that, between 2004 and 2017, the automotive companies operating in Europe have made a sign. By means that they have decided at the table the pricesof the out of use car market and their recycling. The car manufacturers coordinated their behavior towards self -demolishors, so as not to remunerate them adequately for their services.
However, the agreement also extended To the detriment of consumers. The car manufacturers would have agreed in order not to make public the information on which percentage of the materials used to produce a car is recyclable, and how recycled material it is used in new cars.
This would have led to a reduction in information for consumers, who could therefore not have made an appropriate choice at the time of purchase if they were attentive to these issues. Hence the decision of Fin the car manufacturers.
The investigation and collaboration of Mercedes
The fines decided by the European Commission are the result of an investigation that also involved the British antitrust agency. It all started with the complaint of the only car manufacturer who was not fined, Mercedes-Benz. The German brand has in fact decided to leave the cartel and reveal to the authorities what the competitors were designed.
Thus, in 2017, later 15 years of secret agreementsthe trust ended and the commission investigations began to reveal the details. The companies have not denied what has been done, but the pact still had very different effects on each of them.
Which car manufacturers received the highest fines
There were several elements that influenced theentity of fines. Among these, the number of cars concerned and the geographical scope are directly linked to the size of the companies. For this reason, often, the most important groups in the European market have received a greater fine:
- Volkswagen, 127.7 million euros;
- Renault-Nissan, 81.46 million euros;
- Stellantis, 74.94 million euros;
- Ford, 41.46 million euros;
- BMW, 25.6 million euros;
- Toyota, 23.55 million euros;
- Opel, 24.53 million euros;
- GM, over 17 million euros;
- Hyundai/Kia, 11.95 million euros;
- Volvo, 8.9 million euros;
- Suzuki, 5.47 million euros;
- Honda, 5.04 million euros;
- Mazda, 5 million euros;
- Mitsubishi, 4.15 million euros;
- Jaguar Land Rover, 1.64 million euros.
In addition to the companies, the acea itself was also fined, of 500 thousand euros. These are significant figures but still an order of size lower than those that were expected for emissions. For these sanctions, a solution has been proposed that refers to them to 2027.
