It seems to be obvious: If the EU Commission imposes a fine in the high three-digit million range, the cartel brothers concerned will have misbehaved badly. This is all the more true when it comes to German car companies that have agreed on exhaust gas cleaning in their vehicles. But it's not that easy. The EU antitrust proceedings against VW, BMW and Daimler that have now been concluded are closed to an all too woodcut view. The accusation that the carmakers had jointly manipulated the emission control system has long since ceased to exist. The Commission also dropped the suspicion that there had been price-fixing agreements between the companies some time ago.
Had she been able to prove all of these allegations, she would certainly have fined billions of dollars. Of course, it remains a political issue that the three German model companies have systematically agreed. The naturalness with which they have done this for many years throws a rather unflattering light on the German key industry par excellence. If the commission's finding is correct that the agreements should primarily prevent innovations in exhaust gas cleaning, this does not speak for the competitiveness of the industry.
Nevertheless, in the end, the case is likely to be remembered mainly because of an antitrust peculiarity.
For the first time, the EU competition watchdogs sanctioned a cartel that was not aimed at fixing prices or dividing markets, but solely aimed at coordinated technical development of products.
The Commission is right to argue that such agreements affect business success to the detriment of consumers.
However, the fact that it granted companies a discount of 20 percent on the amount of the fine reveals uncertainty about their own new assessment standards.
It would be a great surprise if these new standards were not examined by the courts.