Illegal agreements: Car manufacturers will be fined millions

For the first time, the EU Competition Commission has imposed a cartel fine for technical agreements. The car manufacturers Audi, BMW, Daimler, Porsche and Volkswagen are affected. You have to pay 875 million euros.

A large sum at first glance: BMW, Daimler, Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche have to pay a total of 875 million euros in cartel fines for illegal agreements on technical developments. Specifically, it is about reducing emissions. “People must be able to trust that there is competition among car manufacturers,” says EU Competition Commissioner Margrete Vestager. “Not only in terms of prices, but also in terms of technology.”

The commission accuses the German automakers of not having fully exploited the technology for reducing exhaust emissions in diesel vehicles. They would have agreed this procedure together for five years. It is about the so-called Ad-Blue process, in which the harmful nitrogen oxide emissions are reduced through an additive in the fuel. BMW, Daimler and the VW group are said to have agreed to only use this technology to the extent that the statutory nitrogen oxide limit values ​​prescribe.

Competition Commissioner Vestager says, however, that more would have been possible – and without the agreements, fewer environmentally harmful cars could have come onto the market. “The automakers have developed very good technology, but decided not to exploit the potential of this technology. And that is not acceptable,” said Vestager.

Fine below the possible limit

It is the first time that the Commission has imposed a cartel penalty for technical agreements – and not for cooperation on prices or market access. This is new territory in terms of antitrust law, it is said, and has therefore been taken into account with a discount in the amount of the fine.

In fact, the Commission’s fine is below the limit of ten percent of a company’s annual turnover. The fine could have reached billions for just one of the car manufacturers.

For the European parliamentarian Jutta Paulus from the Greens, the cartel penalty proves that in the past few years a lot of things have not been right in the auto industry. In principle, the EU must take stronger action here. “After the diesel scandal, now the Ad Blue scandal. It’s a joke that the European Union can now take action against it with competition law rather than environmental law,” she says.

Daimler exempted from fine as a key witness

Environmental law is not Vestager’s portfolio, but with her decision today she is also turning competition law into an environmental policy instrument. Originally, the commission even suspected that the corporations were also agreeing on emission control for gasoline engines, but there was no evidence of this. This charge has been dropped.

The investigations have been going on for a good two years – the manufacturers themselves have been cooperative, it is said. Because the crucial information came from the Daimler Group, he was waived the fine in accordance with the leniency program. Nevertheless: With its decision today, the EU also wants to set an example – that it is serious about the Green Deal and environmental protection in Europe.