“From 1997 to 2011 some of the largest truck manufacturers in Europe acted as a cartel to cheat customers,” says Jeremy Marshall, chief investment officer at Bentham.
Pointing to the enormity of the damage caused by the cartel, he continues: “The volume of truck sales covered by the EC is staggering: we estimate that around 10 million trucks were sold in the EU during the cartel period and that, within that number – and based on estimates of overcharges attributed to previous cartels – buyers of medium and heavy trucks were overcharged by an estimated eur 10,500 per truck.
“Bentham is determined to bring the opportunity to recover the overcharges to the attention of as many truck purchasers as it can, and enable these victims of the cartel collectively to seek redress,” he says.
“Claims against the truck cartel are expected to be one of the largest ever compensation claims resulting from a cartel ruling.”
On 19 July this year, the European Commission found that truck manufacturers DAF, Daimler, Iveco MAN and Volvo/Renault had breached Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and Article 53 of the EEA Agreement, which prohibit cartels and other restrictive business practices.
The OEMs were found by the Commission to have colluded by manipulating truck prices for 14 years and by passing-on to their customers the costs of compliance with stricter EU emission rules.
For these breaches, the Commission imposed a record fine of €2.93 billion. MAN avoided a fine by informing the commission of the cartel.
All the truck manufacturers have acknowledged their involvement in the cartel, except Scania whose involvement remains under investigation.
Potential claimants who purchased or leased trucks from any one or more of MAN, Volvo/Renault, Daimler, Iveco, DAF or Scania, during the period 1997 to 2011 should register their details on the Bentham Europe website: www.benthameurope.com/en/trucks