The European Commission has imposed multimillion-dollar fines in a cartel case against five German automakers. Volkswagen (VW) is due to pay 502 million euros and BMW 373 million euros, the regulator said in Brussels on Thursday, July 8.
All companies admitted to the collusion and agreed to an amicable settlement. The case concerned cartel agreements on technologies for cleaning the exhaust of diesel vehicles.
Daimler is completely exempt from paying the fine, since it was he who informed Brussels of the conspiracy. Otherwise, he would have to pay 727 million euros.
Cartel conspiracy
According to the European Commission, automakers regularly held meetings to discuss how to eliminate harmful NOx emissions by adding AdBlue. During these meetings, they agreed not to compete with each other in the purification of exhaust emissions above the statutory rate, despite the fact that the necessary technologies already existed.
Daimler, BMW, VW, Audi and Porsche had technologies to purify harmful emissions significantly better than EU regulations, said EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, stressing that competition and innovation are critical to meeting Europe’s climate protection goals.
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