EU fines Volkswagen, BMW $1 bn

The European Commission has fined German carmakers Volkswagen and BMW a total of 875 million euros for colluding to curb use of emission-cleaning technology that they had developed. The case, separate from the socalled ‘Dieselgate’ scandal over software designed to cheat on vehicle emission tests, sets a precedent by extending the application of European competition law to technical-level talks between industry players. In this case, the German carmakers had colluded to restrict the size of tanks containing Adblue – an additive used to cleanse nitrogen oxide from the exhaust gases produced by diesel-powered cars – between 2006 and 2014.