Dieselgate, Korea sticks with Audi, Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz was fined 20.7 billion won, BMW 15.7 and Audi 6. Germans once again accused of cartel
Dieselgate has been talked about for eight years and apparently there is still much more to say, if the South Korean antitrust authority has just sentenced four German marks to millionaires to pay a fine.
DIESELGATE, WHAT THE ANTITRUST CLAIMS AGAINST AUDI, VW, BMW AND MERCEDES
To be precise, this last chapter of the dieselgate affair concerns a fine of 42.3 billion won (31.2 million euros at current exchange rates) against Audi, Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz accused of having formed a cartel to limit the exhaust emissions cleaning technology of their diesel cars. The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) accuses the German four of being "involved in a collusion that has reduced competition and limited consumer choice."
THE REPLICA OF MERCEDES
But those directly involved are not there: “Mercedes-Benz has fully cooperated with the KFTC and will not have to pay any fine. The case refers to the same set of facts that have been the subject of the European Commission's proceedings and in which Mercedes-Benz acted as a leniency seeker and did not have to pay any fines, said a spokesman for Mercedes-Benz, which alone commented, citing the outcome of a similar investigation conducted by the European Commission.
THE ETERNAL KOREAN WAR
It is not the first time that dieselgate has been mentioned in South Korea, again with reference to German brands. Last year Mercedes-Benz and its Korean subsidiary were fined 20.2 billion won (14.9 million euros) for misleading advertising linked to gas emissions from diesel cars.
THE PREVIOUS EU
Coming instead to the Old Continent, in the summer of 2021 the EU Antitrust had imposed a fine of over 875 million euros on BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen for having joined forces by hindering the development and full use of non-polluting technologies to reduce emissions from diesel car. The Community dieselgate concerned the 'circle of five', ie BMW, Daimler and three divisions of the Volkswagen group, ie Audi and Porsche as well. Having reported the irregular practice to the Commission, Daimler avoided the fine.
The EU Commission had reconstructed that Daimler, BMW and Volkswagen had violated antitrust rules by colluding on technological developments for cleaning the exhaust fumes emitted by new diesel cars. All the automakers had acknowledged their involvement in the cartel. BMW had been fined for 372.827 million and Volkswagen for 502.362 million, making use of a 45% reduction for collaborating with the Antitrust. Daimler had benefited from total immunity against a fine of around 727 million euros.
According to Brussels, the automakers had held regular technical meetings to discuss the development of Selective Catalytic Reduction, a technology that eliminates harmful nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from diesel cars by injecting urea (also called "AdBlue") into the gas flow exhaust. During these meetings, and for more than five years (2009 to 2014), the companies had collaborated to avoid competition in this area to make the 'cleanup' action better than required by law despite the technology being available.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/dieselgate-la-corea-bacchetta-audi-volkswagen-bmw-e-mercedes-benz/ on Fri, 10 Feb 2023 10:57:02 +0000.