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Mercedes-Benz fined £2.6m for competition breaches

Mercedes-Benz and three of its commercial vehicle dealers will pay a £2.6m fine after breaching competition laws.

Ciceley, Road Range and Enza admitted to infringements along with Mercedes-Benz, relating to the distribution of vans and trucks over three periods of time between 2008 and 2010.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said three separate breaches of competition law were admitted, which mainly involved the distribution of Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicles in parts of Wales, Scotland and the North of England.

An investigation carried out by OFT found a variety of law breakages across the different dealers, including elements of market sharing, the exchange of commercially sensitive information and price coordination.

Not all the dealers were involved in every infringement, however Ciceley, which is based in Greater Manchester and Lancashire, was involved in all three periods of transgressions, along with one or more other parties.

Mercedes-Benz will pay just under £1.5m, while Ciceley will pay nearly £700,000, Road Range will pay over £115,000 and Enza will pay nearly £350,000.

OFT’s senior director of cartels, Ali Nikpay, commented: “These cases send a clear signal that the OFT will take firm action against companies that collude to deny customers the benefit of fair competition regardless of the size of the firms involved or geographic scope of the investigation.

“These cases also underline that the OFT can uncover cartels even in cases where the businesses involved do not blow the whistle, as well as being a concrete illustration of the benefits of businesses acting quickly and cooperating at the earliest opportunity so as to qualify for immunity from fines.”

OFT agreed on a 15% fine reduction after the companies admitted to their wrongdoings and agreed to a “streamlined administrative procedure.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .