The new penalty extends cartel fraud from cars to vans

The new judicial blow to the car industry comes after the National Market and Competition Commission (CNMC) revealed in 2015 that it was behind a price-fixing scheme that ran between 2006 and 2013 and involved 27 car brands.

The process opened by the Competition and later transferred to the courts against the so-called car cartel, first resulted in unprecedented million-dollar sanctions in the sector, and recently Justice extended the deadline to sue until 2026 for thousands of consumers — 400,000 of them Galicians — victims of deliberate and illegal additional cost when buying a vehicle.

But there is another news that can significantly increase the number of victims of fraud, currently estimated at more than 5 million throughout Spain, after yesterday’s famous pioneering sentence, broadly interpreting the concept of cars, also declared car buyers affected.vans in that period.

A van is a car

This was ruled by the Commercial Court No. 1 in Pontevedra, in a judgment in which it concluded that the prices of vans — and not only passenger cars, as it was believed until now — also increased as a result of the unauthorized conduct of the competition carried out by the companies involved in the cartel.

The penalty thus rejects the arguments put forward by Renault, which defended that the decision of the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) of July 23, 2015 on the agreement on prices only applies to practices that violate the law of market competition in relation to passenger cars . market, not the van or light commercial vehicle market.

The judge’s ruling is strong in asserting that the CNMC resolution applies to “all vehicles sold by the sanctioned entities.” The owner of Mercantile 1 understands that the anticompetitive behavior in which Renault participated “had an effect on the final selling price of the car” and that this effect “benefited the infringers and harmed the car buyers, damages which, in the circumstances, should necessarily have resulted in payment prices higher than what would have corresponded if there had been no injury”.

The conduct for which Renault is now sanctioned consisted of the exchange, from February 2006 to July 2013, of confidential, forward-looking and strategic information in the areas of business management and marketing.

In the decision, the judge ordered the French brand to pay the woman who bought the Kangoo van model in October 2010, as compensation, the amount of 944.35 euros, plus interest. The judge estimated that the car poster had caused him “reasonable damages” in the amount of 10% of the total purchase price of the car; and extends the deadline for claims by injured parties, in accordance with the doctrine of the Court of the European Union, to five years, i.e. until 2026.

Depending on the brand and model purchased, the average fee could be around 2,500 euros on average. “In a vehicle that cost 15,000 euros, the compensation could range between 1,500 and 2,250 euros, plus legal interest,” explains the Association of those injured by the car cartel.

Claims can be filed by any natural or legal person, individually or collectively, with the presentation of invoices, proof of rent payment or leasing vehicles or amounts paid for repairs, along with the technical sheet and contracts.