AUTONEWS

Margrethe Vestager is the European Commissioner for Competition

Brussels investigates BMW, Daimler and VW on suspicion of cartel

The European Commission has launched a formal investigation into whether there has been a cartel formation between BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen Group (VW) in developing clean energy technologies to reduce pollutant emissions in cars of their respective brands."The European Commission is investigating whether BMW, Daimler and VW have agreed to not compete against each other in the development of important systems to reduce pollutant emissions in gasoline and diesel cars," said the European Commissioner for Competition, according to a statement from Brussels released on Tuesday morning. For Margrethe Vestager, "if the suspicions are confirmed, this collusion may have denied consumers the opportunity to buy cleaner cars, even though the technology is available to their manufacturers."This in-depth investigation now initiated by the European authorities "focuses on information that BMW, Daimler, VW, Audi and Porsche have attended meetings that discussed the development of technologies to reduce emissions of gases," reads the statement . A practice which, if confirmed, constitutes a breach of European rules which prohibit cartelisation and other restrictive practices and damage free competition in the market. The Commissioner responsible for this area has defined as a "priority" the in-depth investigation into this alleged cartel process among German companies, although it does not have concrete data to confirm suspected cartels.At issue, according to the same communiqué, are two types of technology: SCR, a system that reduces the emission of nitrogen oxides from cars with diesel engines; OPF, a filter system that reduces emissions of harmful particles in gasoline cars.