The European Commission fines Scania more than €880 million
- Newsletter, Flash newsOn September 27, 2017, the European Commission has announced having fined the company Scania €880,523,000 for its participation in the trucks cartel.
In a first decision on July 19, 2016 the European Commission fined the truck manufacturers MAN, Volvo/Renault, Daimler, Iveco and DAF a total amount of €2.93 billion. They were charged for colluding on pricing and on the passing on to customers of the costs for the improvements required for the trucks’ compliance with emission standards – a cartel that lasted over a period of 14 years.
This first decision had been rendered as part of a settlement between the European Commission and the five truck manufacturers. In contrary to the other five participants in the cartel, Scania decided to dispute the objections and not to settle the case. As a result, the investigation against Scania was carried on independently.
The decision announced on September 27 closes the case of the truck cartel.
The fine imposed on Scania seems to be almost moderate compared to the total amount of fines imposed by the European Commission over the last year. But if we take a closer look, we can see that the truck manufacturer has been given a sanction that is particularly severe.
A higher individual fine was only imposed on Daimler, amounting to €1,008,766,000. For all the other manufacturers, the fines were inferior to the one imposed on Scania.
And rightly so! All the manufacturers punished with the decision of July 19, 2016 could benefit from substantial reductions to their fines.
Of the five manufacturers sentenced in 2016, four decided to fully cooperate with the Commission throughout the leniency procedure. MAN, which had revealed the existence of the cartel to the Commission, has not been fined, thereby avoiding a fine of €1.2 billion. Volvo/Renault benefited from a reduction of 40% of the amount of its fine, Daimler of a reduction of 30% and Iveco of 10%.
Moreover, the five manufacturers that had decided to settle the case benefited from an additional reduction lowering their fine by 10%.
Scania had decided not to cooperate with the Commission, neither under the leniency procedure nor under the settlement procedure. Therefore, it could not benefit from any reduction of its fine.
By its decision, the European Commission is sending a clear message to the companies which decide to cooperate with it.
Finally, it should be mentioned that for the same purpose of assuring the revelation and the settlement of any breach of antitrust rules, the same procedures of leniency and settlement are stipulated in article L.464-2 of the French Commercial Code (Code de Commerce) and can be applied by the French Antitrust Division (Autorité de la concurrence).
Further information can be found in the Press release IP/17/3502 of the European Commission.