Volkswagen, Stellantis and other car manufacturers have struck with 495 million dollars fine of the EU cartel

By Foo Yun Chee and Makini Brice

Brussels (Reuters) -Volkswagen, Stellantis, 13 other car manufacturers and their car association was sentenced to a fine of 458 million euros ($ 495 million) by the EU antitrust regulators on Tuesday for participating in a vehicle recycling cartel.

The European Commission, which made a descent into companies three years ago, said that the cartel, which involved end -of -life vehicles, took place from May 2002 to September 2017, with meetings and contacts organizing Acaea Acaea between companies.

The recycling of end -of -life vehicles is when cars are dismantled and treated for recycling and elimination once they are no longer suitable for use.

The EU competition dog has said that companies have agreed not to compete with each other in the advertisement in which their cars could be recycled and have agreed to be silent on the amount of materials recycled in new cars.

They also agreed not to pay car dismantles for the treatment of end -of -life vehicles. EU laws oblige car manufacturers to support the recycling costs of these vehicles if necessary, allowing car owners to have free cars with a dismantle.

“We will not tolerate any kind of cartels, and this includes those who delete awareness of customers and the demand for more environmentally friendly products,” said EU Antitrust Teresa Ribera in a press release.

Volkswagen’s fine was the largest with 127.69 million euros, followed by Renault-Nissan with 81.46 million, Stellantis with 74.93 million and Ford with 41.46 million.

The other penalized members of the cartel included Toyota, Mitsubishi, Honda, Hyundai, Jaguar Land Rover, Mazda, GM, Suzuki and Volvo.

Mercedes-Benz avoided a fine to alert the eU laincer to the cartel.

The ACEA received a fine of 500,000 euros.

All car manufacturers have admitted reprehensible acts in exchange for a 10% reduction to their fines.

(1 $ = 0.9259 euros)

(Report by Makini Briceding by Benoit Van Overstraeten and David Goodman)