Waberer’s has reached an out-of-court settlement with one of the HGV manufacturers involved in a compensation procedure initiated by the company at the Munich court in 2016. The company announced on its website on Monday, April 4th, that it has settled the case that lasted for over 7 years.
The lawsuit was part of the truck cartel scandal that shook the industry in 2016. The European Commission imposed fines of nearly three billion euros on Daimler, Iveco, DAF, and Volvo/Renault for engaging in price agreements for several years.
These agreements included the coordination of wholesale list prices, the timing of the introduction of new emission technologies, the passing on of these costs to customers, and sharing other commercially sensitive information about medium and heavy-duty vehicles in the EEA.
In subsequent years, the European Commission fined Scania 880 million euros for its participation in the cartel. In 2021, the European Court of Justice also ruled that companies dealing with damaged goods transport could file claims against the manufacturers’ subsidiaries, not just the parent company, even if the subsidiary had not been fined for cartel involvement.
When announcing the agreement on Monday, Waberer’s did not disclose the name of the manufacturer or the details of the settlement in its statement. All that is known is that „the concerned truck manufacturer is released from the lawsuit, and Waberer’s claim is EUR 26.6 million compared to the previously communicated amount without interest (and its interest) is reduced to an amount”.
The proceedings against the other truck manufacturers involved in the lawsuit will continue, according to the statement by Waberer’s.