Suspected cartel between the major German automobile manufacturers

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AFP

Friday, 21 July, 2017 09:37

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Friday, 21 July, 2017 09:37

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The German automobile manufacturers Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, BMW and Daimler have formed a cartel since the 1990s, working together, in particular on the reduction of polluting emissions of diesel cars, said Friday the German magazine Der Spiegel.

“The German automotive industry worked together since the 1990s in working groups secrets on the technique used in the cars, costs, subcontractors, markets, strategies, and also on the reduction of the polluting emissions of their diesel vehicles,” he wrote.

The Spiegel says take this information as “a written document that the VW group has addressed to the authorities of competition” in July 2016, as “a kind of self-denunciation”. Daimler also will be self-denounced, ” says the weekly.

Contacted by AFP, the Volkswagen group brands VW, Audi and Porsche) made no comment, Daimler, manufacturer of Mercedes-Benz, and BMW. The Office of the German anti-cartel was not reachable in the immediate future.

According to this letter referred to by the Spiegel, both VW, Audi and Porsche, but also BMW and Daimler have reportedly participated in these meetings. Volkswagen has been described as “a hint” that this had resulted in “behaviors that violate the competition law”.

Read also: The diesel cleaner than gasoline

These sixty working groups, having together more than 200 employees, would have looked at all the areas of development of the car, the petrol and diesel engines, the brakes, the clutch and the transmission and would have discussed the selection of sub-contractors and price.

Since 2006, the builders would be met many times to determine the size of the tanks of Adblue, an additive which allows to reduce the polluting emissions of nitrogen oxide. Large tanks showing themselves to be more expensive, the groups would have opted together for small tanks, do not contain enough liquid to sufficiently decrease the air pollutants emitted.

2015 has been discovered a vast match-fixing Volkswagen to make it appear less polluting that, in reality, the eleven million diesel vehicles.

Since then, several manufacturers are believed to have played with the rules for that pollutant emissions are not reduced permanently.