Martijn van de Hel is door mededingingsplatform PaRR geïnterviewd over de bedrijfsinvallen in de automotive sector voor hun wekelijkse column Watchdog.
Zowel de Europese Commissie als de Britse mededingingsautoriteit (UK Competition and Markets Authority) hebben invallen gedaan bij autofabrikanten. Zo heeft de Commissie bedrijfsbezoeken afgelegd bij Opel, Toyota en Renault en bij branchevereniging ACEA (European Automobile Manufacturer’s Association) werd niet gespaard. Fabrikanten als BMW, Volkswagen en Ford hebben inmiddels vragen van de autoriteiten gekregen.
Martijn van de Hel werd gevraagd welk gedrag mogelijk de aandacht van de autoriteiten heeft getrokken:
“Over the past twenty years when I have been practising, the auto sector has been the subject of probes roughly every two to three years.
What seems clear is that with the proliferation of auto probes this is unlikely to be brazen price-fixing.
Van de Hel said that the involvement of ACEA suggests brokerage by the industry association may lie at the heart of the conduct. Since cooperation with the purpose of recycling would not of itself constitute abusive conduct, it is likely that there is tie in the allegations between coordination carried out with a lawful purpose that might be suspected of having abusive effect.
According to van de Hel that is redolent of the sanction meted out in 2011 by DG Competition on Unilever and Procter & Gamble for fixing washing powder prices in eight EU countries. Germany's Henkel alerted the EC then to a cartel in laundry detergents.
In that case the price fixing began when the companies worked through a trade association to make their detergents more environmentally friendly. Having agreed on the reduction of environmentally harmful ingredients within the powders – the companies then crossed a line.’’
De volledige column is hier te lezen.
