Daimler was also found to be part of a cartel but wasn’t fined for being the whistleblower

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EC finds BMW, Volkswagen, and Daimler of restricting competition in emission cleaning for new diesel passenger cars. (Credit: Dimitris Vetsikas from Pixabay)

The European Commission (EC) said that car manufacturers BMW and Volkswagen Group have been collectively fined €875m for curbing competition in emission cleaning for new diesel passenger cars.

The regulator had also found Daimler to be guilty under the same charge but let it go without a fine for revealing the existence of the cartel.

The Volkswagen Group includes Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche.

According to the EC, BMW, Volkswagen Group and Daimler had violated European Union (EU) antitrust rules by colluding on technical development in nitrogen oxide cleaning.

All the three firms have accepted their involvement in the cartel and have agreed to settle the accusations, said the EC.

The regulator said that the accusations on the three firms pertain to a time period between 25 June 2009 and 1 October 2014.

EC executive vice-president Margrethe Vestager, who is in charge of competition policy, said: “The five car manufacturers Daimler, BMW, Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche possessed the technology to reduce harmful emissions beyond what was legally required under EU emission standards.

“But they avoided to compete on using this technology’s full potential to clean better than what is required by law. So today’s decision is about how legitimate technical cooperation went wrong.”

The EC claimed that the car manufacturers had regular technical meetings for discussing the development of the selective catalytic reduction (SCR)-technology, which removes harmful nitrogen oxide (NOx)-emissions from diesel passenger cars by injecting urea (also called AdBlue) into the exhaust gas stream.

The commission charged that during the meetings, and for more than five years, the automobile firms colluded to delay the cleaner emissions technology despite its availability.

BMW’s share of the fine is €372.8m, while Volkswagen Group has to pay €502m. Daimler could avoid a fine of €727m for disclosing the collusion to the EC.

BMW said that the EC’s fine notice stated that there is no sign of collusion between the firms regarding the use of prohibited defeat devices for manipulating exhaust gas tests.

BMW stated: “This underlines that there has never been any allegation of unlawful manipulation of emission control systems by the BMW Group.”