By David Farmer
Wilson Browne Solicitors
CARTELS, price-fixing, anti-trust – call it what you will but there’s no escaping that Competition Law is there to protect us from… a lack of competition!
It seems that the automotive industry lurches (crashes?) from one scandal to the next. Whether it be defeat devices designed to produce favourable emissions tests results, or safety recalls, it seems that the industry has had its share of problems. Latest on the list is a price fixing scandal that, by its very nature, has left some businesses thousands out of pocket.
The European Commission carried out an investigation into the practices of leading European truck manufacturers. In July 2016 the Commission published a report which stated that DFA, Daimler, IVECO, MAN and Volvo/Renault had operated a cartel and had been found to be price fixing and deliberately delayed the introduction of emission technology between the period 1997 and 2011. They were fined a total of £2.926 billion. In September 2017, Scania was also fined £770 million in respect of the same issues.
If you are a logistics company and have purchased trucks from any of the companies mentioned above then you maybe able to bring a claim for damages against the truck cartel companies. There is a group claim being brought by the Road Haulage Association against truck cartel members for recovery of the difference between what had been paid for commercial trucks and what would have been paid if the truck cartel had not existed.
It may also be possible to recover your increased fuel costs caused by the delay of the truck cartel to introduce more fuel efficient technologies.
Wilson Browne has an established position in relation to representing logistics companies within Northamptonshire and are sponsors of the Northamptonshire Logistics Awards.
To find out more or for a free initial discussion, contact David Farmer at Wilson Browne Solicitors on 01536 410014.
