Tasked with investigating the alleged price-fixing and collusion within the motor industry, the competition commission has been lambasted by BMW SA who disagrees with the manner in which the commission’s findings were released.
Tasked with investigating the alleged price-fixing and collusion within the motor industry, the competition commission has been lambasted by BMW SA who disagrees with the manner in which the commission’s findings were released.
Wolfgang Stadler, BMW SA managing director has said that the allegations made against the manufacturer were not clear and that BMW SA had not had an opportunity to respond to them.
“The public perception is that motor manufacturers are guilty, but that is unfair. We have no idea of what we could have done wrong. Making allegations that the car companies have done something wrong and car prices are very high is very damaging to the industry’s reputation,” Stadler told the .
Stadler also questioned the manner in which the commission made its findings known to the public first, without the manufacturers knowledge.
“The way they have gone to the public should be questioned. Up to today, we don’t know what they have found. We’ve only read their press release. They didn’t contact us directly,” he said.
Early this month the commission said that it would refer BMW, Citroën, General Motors, Nissan, Volkswagen, Subaru and DaimlerChrysler to the competition tribunal for allegedly engaging in resale price maintenance (or, price-fixing).
The commission said evidence revealed that these manufacturers and importers either imposed, or agreed on, minimum resale prices for their dealers It said evidence gathered revealed that the manufacturers’ agreements with their dealers had impacted negatively on competition within the market.
According to the competition commission, the group of manufacturers and importers contravened a section of the Competition Act. Among other things, the Act prohibits an agreement or practice between competing companies to fix prices and/or trading conditions – either directly or indirectly – or dividing the market by allocating customers, suppliers, or specific types of services or goods.
