Daimler and Volvo face retrial in €560m cartel suit
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Daimler Truck Holding and Volvo will face a retrial in a €560m case over a price fixing cartel, a German appeals court ruled.
Judges in Munich overturned a previous ruling dismissing the case that’s seeking to make truckmakers pay for overcharging customers for their vehicles. Among the defendants are also Volkswagen AG’s MAN unit and Iveco Group.
Daimler Truck said it disagrees with the ruling and may appeal after a thorough review of the written judgment. The claims are unfounded, the company added.
The suit is part of a group of cases filed by Financialright GmbH on behalf of 3,000 companies that said they paid too much for their trucks because prices were fixed. The lower court in 2020 ruled Financialright’s model of buying the claims isn’t legal. The appeals court corrected that decision, allowing the case to restart in trial court.
The plaintiffs are relying on findings by the European Union, which targeted the truckmakers in an antitrust probe. The EU investigation revealed they fixed prices of medium and heavy-duty vehicles over 14 years, leading to large fines in 2016 and 2017. Since then, a number of big customers have sued the manufacturers for compensation in various EU countries.
The suit originally sought €867m for more than 3,200 companies. It has meanwhile been reduced, both in terms of the number of claims and amount sought.