This is the last chance for compensation for carriers. By the end of June, European businesses can join a class action lawsuit against truck manufacturers, which will soon be brought before a court by the largest German transport association. This is already the third lawsuit filed by the organisation representing companies from as many as 26 countries of the European Union.
Soon BGL, one of the most important German transport and logistics organisations, will file another, the third lawsuit against truck manufacturers, who in the years 1997-2011 were in collusion and inflated vehicle prices.
In the last two years, BGL, in cooperation with Financialright Claims GmbH, has filed a two-part class action lawsuit in Munich. Approximately 7,000 carriers from 26 countries of the European Union participate in it and it includes 150,000 vehicles in total. At the end of last year, the court received a total of 3 tons of documents. This year, by filing the third and final part of the lawsuit, the law firm wants to focus on the Polish market, which, according to lawyers, is one of the most affected by the cartel.
Persons interested in joining the lawsuit may apply here: https://truck-damages.com
Losses of European companies
The losses incurred by the clients of these companies in Poland alone were estimated by the law firm at over 2.8 billion euros. Polish companies and self-employed individuals can apply for refunds of approximately EUR 10,000 per vehicle. So far, the owners of only 10,000 vehicles from hundreds of thousands of vehicles registered in our country in that period have taken advantage of this opportunity.
The financial loss of carriers from Romania is around € 44.743.158,16 plus interest loss, which is about € 4,988,615,19; from Hungary is around € 9.535.868,76 € + interest loss which is €2.881.569,02.
How to get money back?
If between 1997 and 2016 you bought, leased or rented with the right to buy a truck from one of the manufacturers involved in the collusion, you can join the BGL lawsuit. However, you need to hurry up and register by June 30th on the following website: https://truck-damages.com. By September 30th this year it is necessary to provide the law firm with scanned documents confirming the purchase of the vehicle (in case of lack of documents at least one document is sufficient, e.g. invoice, registration certificate, lease agreement or any information from the annual balance sheet). Thanks to the US ‘success fee’ model used in the case, there is no financial risk at all.
Price collusion of truck manufacturers
Truck manufacturers MAN, Volvo/Renault, Daimler, Iveco and DAF were fined in July 2016 with a record-breaking fine in the history of the European Union, totalling almost €3 billion.
The collusion will cost companies much more – carriers from all over Europe will fight for compensation. It is estimated that companies can win up to €100 billion in the whole European Union.
Scania, as established by the EC, had also been setting truck prices and costs for new emission abatement technologies with five other manufacturers for 14 years. On 27th September 2017 the European Commission, therefore, imposed a fine of €880 million on the Swedish car company for its participation in the price collusion. This decision of the European Commission opened the way for companies to recover overstated purchase costs from vehicle manufacturers.
At the end of last year, the first judgment in a compensation case was passed. The Commercial Court No 1 in Murcia decided that Volvo Group Spain should pay the claimant more than EUR 128,000 in damages plus interest for the purchase of five trucks in October 2012. The claimant’s lawyer managed to prove that the price of the trucks purchased in 2012 was still overstated due to the price collusion by as much as 20.7%, or €26,000 per vehicle. This amount is much higher than the experts’ estimates, which oscillated around an average of €10,000 per vehicle.
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