Commission announces three Automotive Cartel fines
Today the EU Commission said announced it fined maritime car carriers 395 million euro (£348 million), spark plug suppliers 76 million euro (£67 million) and brake system suppliers 75 million euro (£66 million) for taking part in cartels. A total of 546 million euros.
As a leading representative of automobile manufacturers’, Hausfeld has welcomed the findings.
Commenting on the news Partner Andrew Bullion says:
“These latest decisions reflect how seriously the Commission takes anti-competitive behaviour and points up the need for their continued vigilance against the continued pattern of infringement against Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) in the automotive industry. In this announcement alone, seven companies have been fined relating to three different automotive cartels.
This is the latest warning shot to businesses that the Commissioner is not afraid to tackle the problem head-on and I doubt that it’s the last we will hear of it.
As our firm has seen with our many automotive clients, their industry has been targeted systematically and continuously, with an ever-growing number of car parts revealed as having been cartelised. As they have done previously, our automotive clients will be looking to enforce their rights and seek recovery of any losses caused by these latest cartels.
The EU Parliament, in issuing their Damages Directive (adopted by the UK and nearly all other EU member states) have sought to make it easier for cartel victims to recover losses suffered due to antitrust infringements. Today automotive manufacturers can do so even more easily against these cartels and others, by bringing private actions against the conspirators.”
