Recent Competition Law Developments in the Automotive Industry

Abstract

Those following current antitrust-related events in the automotive industry cannot escape one topic taking up much of last year's space in press coverage on the automotive sector, the diesel emissions scandal.1 Core of the so-called dieselgate is that VW diesel cars were installed with software programmed to activate emission controls only during laboratory emissions testing leading to consumption per mileage test results not achievable in everyday driving. The US authorities consider the use of such software a violation of environmental laws, tax laws, unfair competition laws, and false advertising laws. An infringement of antitrust laws has yet most frequently not been assumed. However, in the US case Brown v Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. of September 2015 the plaintiff Scott Xavier Brown accused VW of violating US antitrust laws.2 The plaintiff alleges a conspiracy between the Volkswagen manufacturing corporation and a Michigan dealership corporation under the terms of Section 1 of the US Sherman Act. He claims that the alleged conspiracy had the effect of fixing, raising, stabilising and maintaining prices for clean, ecologically focused, low fuel consumption vehicles at artificially high, non-competitive levels throughout the USA. Consumers would have been deprived of the benefits of a free and open competition. It remains highly questionable whether the plaintiff will be able to provide enough evidence for the alleged conspiracy. It appears unlikely that also European Courts will have to decide on antitrust-related issues in the context of the ‘dieselgate’ scandal in the future.