Mercedes-Benz Under Fire for Alleged Competition Violation

Ryan Joseph Ramos June 28, 2012

The UK’s Office of Fair Trading is probing Mercedes-Benz as well as five dealers in England, Wales, and Scotland that sell the Daimler marque’s trucks for alleged violations of competition law, occuring between 2007 and 2010. The allegations involve the sharing of sensitive commercial information as well as pricing coordination between and among the dealerships.

“We have reason to believe that these dealers cooperated to limit competition in their areas,” said OFT senior director Ali Nikpay. The officer added that those involved will get “full opportunity to respond to our statement before we decide whether competition law has in fact been infringed.”

Here’s more from the OFT statement: “The precise content of the arrangements differs among the five alleged infringements, but all contain, to varying degrees, at least some element of market sharing, price co-ordination and/or exchange of commercially sensitive information… The evidence also suggests that, in respect of two of the alleged infringements, Mercedes-Benz helped to facilitate or consolidate the arrangements amongst the dealers.”

The only comments from Mercedes-Benz UK is that it will cooperate with the authorities but cannot comment any more regarding the allegations and the investigation.