The Supreme Court reviews the criteria that allowed compensation to be set for those affected by the truck cartel

2023-05-10 14:26:45

The Supreme Court has received this Wednesday a set of views of great economic significance and that make this organ the first high court of an EU state who reviews the Justice’s response to the trucking cartel what operated in Europe for 14 years. Specifically, the first judgments that have granted compensation to those affected by the agreement reached between 15 large truck manufacturers to inflate the selling prices of vehicles between 1997 and 2011.

Three public hearings have been held before the magistrates of the Civil Chamber, who have listened to the arguments of the companies’ lawyers FROM VOLVO, MAN and DAIMLER before the legal representation of some transport companies and private truckers affected by the overpricing, which numbered in the tens of thousands during the years of operation of a cartel whose existence was declared by the European Commission in 2016. Three more hearings are scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday, corresponding to the sentences imposed on FIAT/CNH/IVECO and DAF.

These are claims for damages that require the Supreme Court to rule on matters such asl system of expertise that allowed the calculation for setting economic compensation to be received by those affected, which in many cases has been 5 percent – the minimum possible– but that has risen to almost 20 percent in other sentences now appealed.

Legal sources point out to EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA, from the Prensa Ibérica group, the difficulty of establishing what percentage of compensation should finally be paid, but the sentence, of which many European states are pending -reason for which it has been decided to transmit the view by streaming- will try to fix common criteria to apply in matters such as accreditation of the damage, judicial estimation, legitimation or prescription.

Significance of the decision

Until now, in Spain national cartels have been sanctioned for violation of competition in the contentious-administrative jurisdiction. In the case of the trucks, however, the matter has corresponded to the First Chamber of the Supreme Court as a consequence of a directive Europe who recognized the civil liability in order to repair the damage caused when a cartel situation has occurred, Therefore, thousands of truckers filed claims in the Mercantile Courts, which are the ones that have now reached the Supreme Court. What is decided will have great importance in the future when it comes to applying the jurisprudence to other cartels in the future.

The matter also supposes a kind of David vs. Goliath legal, since on the benches of the plenary hall of the high court where the hearings are being held sit, on one side, the defenders of the manufacturers represented by the largest law firms in the country, such as Uría Menéndez, Pérez Llorca, Gómez Acebo&Pombo or Cuatrecasas -in whose representation the lawyer and also member of the General Council of the General Power has attended Jose Maria Macias– in front of the lawyers of smaller offices that carry several affected.

In the hearings held this Wednesday, the manufacturers’ representatives agreed on question the evidentiary effort required of the plaintiffs that have given rise to convictions by the provincial courts, for which reason they ask the Supreme Court to annul them. “It is condemned without any proof of the existence of the damage”, The lawyer representing Volvo has stated, questioning the technical quality of the resolutions of the Hearings.

For their part, the lawyers for the claimants, such as the one representing the company Jordan Craneswhich was affected by the purchase of several vehicles, have described this cartel as being “the most atrocious in the history of the European economic area”, when applied for several years to eliminate price competition in vehicles.

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With this consideration agrees Rafael Fuentes of the Valencian firm Varona Legal & Numbers, which defends the expert opinion system used by the different provincial courts that this Wednesday has been questioned before the Supreme Court. The lawyer has wondered before the Chamber how many transport companies have disappeared since 1997 without being able to claim now, and has questioned that most of the Provincial Courts have felt “comfortable“fixing minimum compensation of 5 percent.

For its part, the Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled a few months ago that the term to claim in cases of infringements of competition is five yearsTherefore, many plaintiffs -more than 3,000 claims have been filed in Spain on this matter- have had more time to file their appeals which have now reached the Supreme Court.