Truck manufacturers have been using illegal software for fixing vehicle prices and year after year have been using the date of launching modern, environmentally-friendly engines to get rid of old models from their warehouses – informed the MKB – Claim, a Dutch agency which is preparing a class suit against the cartel of truck manufacturers.
A few days ago, on the 6th of April this year, the European Commission released a report on the cartel of truck manufacturers: DAF, Iveco, MAN, Mercedes, Scania and Volvo/Renault. This report is a kind of a proof regarding a huge fine of 3 billion Euro imposed on truck manufacturers.
The report confirms that the price increases for vehicles were regularly decided upon with all the manufacturers involved which made the price competition practically impossible and lead to artificially high vehicle prices.
According to the Commission, the manufacturers used special software with catalogue prices for all models and options. The software which the companies were sharing (with the exception of the DAF company) replaced the traditional price lists.
The contracts were also being made via phone calls and e-mails. Several times a year the companies were meeting in Germany where they were making agreements to delay the launch of modern, environmentally-friendly engine models, probably to get rid of old models from their warehouses.
The Dutch association MKB-Claim, representing 2900 Dutch companies which bought approximately 23000 trucks when the cartel was operating has announced that the information provided by the EC will allow them to launch procedures regarding the class suit.
Photo: Volvo Trucks
