Posten Norge Appeals Court Defeat in Truck Price Overpayment Case Against Volvo and Other Manufacturers

Posten Norge believed they had overpaid for trucks for over a decade, and demanded over NOK 900 million in compensation, lost returns and interest. Now the group has appealed the defeat in the district court.

The statement of appeal was delivered to the court on Thursday last week, confirms lawyer Kari Sigurdsen in Haavind, who represents Posten Norge AS.

– The truck manufacturers have admitted to having collaborated illegally for 14 years. According to financial analyzes carried out for Posten, the illegal collaboration has led to higher truck prices, which has led to increased purchasing costs for Posten, she says.

The four truck players, Daf, Volvo/Renault, Man and Daimler, was acquitted of Posten’s compensation claim of NOK 900 million in the Oslo district court at the end of February.

However, the district court chose to ignore the economic analyses, Sigurdsen points out.

– Posten disagrees with the district court’s assessment of the evidence on several points, and has therefore chosen to bring the case before the Court of Appeal for a new trial.

Did not prove overpriced

The district court, which handed down its judgment on 28 February this year, concluded “under considerable doubt” that neither the plaintiffs’ nor the defendants’ regression analyzes could be relied upon.

In other words, it was not proven how much, if any, premium Posten had paid for the trucks during the period of the lawsuit.

Posten Norge filed a lawsuit against the European truck operators, which the European Commission has called a “price cartel” several times, because they believed they had paid NOK 264 million too much for over 1,900 trucks in the period 1997 to 2011.

The overprice should in turn have led to NOK 637 million in lost return on invested capital in the years in question, Posten believes.

This amounted to a total claim against the producers of over NOK 901 million.

The District Court wrote in its conclusion that it found it probable that the truck manufacturers’ list prices indirectly affected the transaction prices sent to customers.

Nevertheless, there is a need to “investigate quantitatively and empirically what the transaction prices would have been without the illegal price collusion”, district court judge Cecilie Kvadsheim stated.

– Does not bring anything new

– Volvo/Renault notes that Posten has appealed the judgment and will respond to the appeal in a response to the appeal, says lawyer Kaare Andreas Shetelig in Wikborg Rein.

Lawyer Thomas G. Naalsund in Wiersholm, who represents MAN and Scania owner Traton, says that they have not yet had time to review the appeal with the client.

– My only reaction is that the appeal does not bring anything new to light beyond what was the basis for the district court’s acquittal, says Naalsund.

The lawyers Eirik W. Raanes in Thommessen, and Ole-Andreas Torgersen and Fredrik Lilleaas Ellingsen in Selmer, who represent DAF Trucks and Daimler respectively, have so far not responded to E24’s request for comment.