The German Competition Authority has imposed fines totalling around 100 million euros on Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (“BMW“), Daimler AG (“Daimler“) and Volkswagen AG (“Volkswagen“) for anti-competitive practices in the purchase of long steel products.
The Authority found that representatives of BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen regularly met twice a year with steel manufacturers, forging companies and large systems suppliers and exchanged information on uniform surcharges for the purchase of long steel products between 2004 and the end of 2013. As a result of these negotiations, surcharges were no longer negotiated individually with the suppliers and thus, price competition between the companies on these price components was eliminated.
The companies under investigation accepted the facts disclosed by the German antitrust watchdog and agreed to make a settlement. The German Authority take into consideration that car manufacturers cooperated with the Authority throughout the process. The investigation was terminated upon the settlement.