£770m fine for price fix
Truck giant Scania punished over cartel
LORRY maker Scania has been hit with a £770million fine for taking part in a pricefixing cartel.
The European Commission slammed the Swedish firm for colluding with rivals over a 14-year period to rip off truck buyers.
A damning probe found Scania and the five others struck cosy deals. Senior bosses held meetings at trade fairs, by phone and via email, it found.
The five rivals – MAN, which like Scania is part of the VW group, Volvo/ Renault, Daimler, Iveco and DAF – settled with the Commission in July last year. Four of them collectively paid £2.5bn in fines.
MAN, which blew the whistle on the collusion, escaped without a fine.
Scania refused to deal with the EU probe.
Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s no-nonsense Competition Commissioner, said: “This cartel affected very substantial numbers of road hauliers in Europe, since Scania and the other truck manufacturers in the cartel produce more than nine out of every 10 medium and heavy trucks sold in Europe. These trucks account for around three-quarters of inland transport of goods in Europe.
“Instead of colluding on pricing, the manufacturers should have been competing against each other – also on environmental improvements.”
The watchdog said its investigation centred on the manufacturing of medium trucks, weighing between six to 16 tonnes, and heavy trucks, weighing more than 16 tonnes.
Scania was found to have taken part in a cartel which coordinated on the factory price of trucks, the timing of when emission technologies should be launched on the market, and when the costs of those measures should be passed onto buyers.