The EU executive said the carmakers had agreed on technical developments in the field of nitrogen oxide cleaning. However, only Daimler was not fined for revealing the existence of this cartel.
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“Five car manufacturers Daimler, BMW, Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche have owned technology to reduce harmful emissions beyond the legally required EU emission standards. But they avoided competing to use the full potential of the technology for better cleaning than required by law, “said Margrethe Vestager, head of EU antitrust policy, adding that, according to the commission, manufacturers were denying consumers the opportunity to buy a car that pollutes the environment.
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“So today’s decision is about how legitimate technical cooperation has gone wrong. And we do not tolerate when companies negotiate secretly, “said Vestagerová.
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Volkswagen is considering taking legal action against the fine. He considers the fine for technical talks on emission technologies with other car manufacturers to be questionable.
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“The Commission imposes fines even though the content of the interviews was never conducted and no customers suffered any harm,” Volkswagen said in a statement, adding that “the commission is entering a new judiciary because it considers technical cooperation a breach of antitrust rules for the first time.”
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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.
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