According to the commission, Daimler, BMW, Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche have formed a cartel to limit the development and implementation of emission control systems for diesel passenger cars. However, Daimler avoided a fine of 875 million euros (22.6 billion CZK) because it pointed out the existence of illegal cooperation, the commission said today. Volkswagen is considering withdrawing.
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EC Vice-President and Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that although carmakers had the technology to reduce harmful emissions below legal limits, they avoided competition and denied consumers the opportunity to buy a car that was less polluting.
“So today’s decision is about how legitimate technical cooperation has gone wrong. And we don’t tolerate when companies negotiate secretly.” Vestager said.
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Volkswagen is considering taking legal action against the fine now. He argues that sanctions for technical negotiations on emission technologies with other car manufacturers set a debatable precedent.
“The Commission is entering a new area of justice because, for the first time, it considers technical cooperation to be in breach of antitrust rules,” said the Volkswagen Group, which together is fined € 502 million. “In addition, the (commission) imposes fines, although the content of the negotiations never took place and no customers suffered as a result,” added Volkswagen. Audi and Porsche are part of it.
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The case was not directly related to the 2015 dieselgate scandal. At the time, Volkswagen admitted in response to allegations by the US authorities that it had installed software to manipulate emission tests in about 11 million diesel cars worldwide.
The dieselgate scandal of the carmaker has so far cost about 32 billion euros (826 billion CZK). The money was used, for example, to convene and modify cars, to compensate customers and for various fines.
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