£770m fine for price fix
Truck giants Scania punished over cartel
LORRY makers Scania have been fined £770million for their part in a pricefixing cartel.
European Commission chiefs 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, who like Scania are part of the VW group, Volvo/Renault, Daimler, Iveco and DAF – settled with the Commission in July last year. Four of them collectively paid £2.5billion in fines.
MAN, who blew the whistle on the collusion, escaped without a fine.
Scania refused to deal with the EU probe.
Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s tough 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 watchdogs said their Margrethe Vestager investigation centred on the manufacturing of medium trucks weighing between six to 16 tonnes, and heavy trucks weighing more than 16 tons.
Scania were found to have taken part in a cartel who co-ordinated 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 on to buyers. Oil RSA RBS J Sainsbury SSE Severn Trent Serco Sports Direct Shell Sky Smith & Nephew Smith WH Stagecoach 621.5 270.8 238.4 1394.0 2158.0 117.6 405.9 2271.0 913.5 1308.0 2032.0 164.3 Energy firm SSE have promised to keep handing hefty payouts to shareholders while hitting customers with inflation-busting price hikes. SSE yesterday reaffirmed that annual dividends would continue rising by at least the Retail Prices Index measure of inflation – currently 3.9 per cent. While investors are quids in, SSE customers suffered a 6.9 per cent price hike in April. This, plus flogging more services such as boiler cover, will mean half-year profits will be up on last year, the firm said. -3.5 +9.0 +0.5 -22.0 -26.0 +1.6 -1.4 -7.0 -4.0 -6.0 +10.0 +0.8