Following a decision by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on Monday, municipalities and counties are hoping for compensation from the members of the so-called truck cartel.

As the Luxembourg judges clarified in the case of a lawsuit against the commercial vehicle manufacturer Daimler Truck (formerly Daimler AG), a decision by the EU Commission to impose fines in the summer of 2016 also extends to illegal price fixing for special and special vehicles – i.e. also garbage trucks, construction site vehicles and fire brigade vehicles ( Case C-588/20).

Marcus Young

Editor in Business.

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In addition to Daimler, Brussels had also imposed fines totaling 3.8 billion euros on other truck manufacturers such as Volvo/Renault, DAF and Iveco.

It was about illegal price agreements from the 1990s up to 2011. This cleared the way for civil claims for damages from affected customers - however, it was previously unclear whether the scope of the decision also extends to cities and municipal companies.

According to a report by the central municipal associations from 2017, around 1,000 municipalities in Germany alone assume that at least 15,000 vehicles will be affected.

Dozens of lawsuits in Hanover

The case that has now been decided was submitted to a civil division of the Hanover Regional Court in Luxembourg.

Dozens of lawsuits from municipalities are pending before the German court, which are suspended until the signal has now been given.

In the pilot case, the district of Northeim is suing Daimler for damages because of two garbage trucks, for which the plaintiff believes excessive prices have been paid.

This legal dispute should now be continued in a timely manner, the district court did not respond to a request.

A spokeswoman for Daimler Trucks said that the decision was of course accepted.

"Against the background of the EU Commission decision made in 2016, however, we cannot understand the interpretation of special vehicles made by the ECJ." However, the ECJ did not make any statement about possible damage with the judgment.

"We are still convinced that our customers have not suffered any damage," said the spokesman.

When asked by the FAZ, she did not want to say how many lawsuits are currently being defended against.

Collection service providers in Germany sensed the dawning of tomorrow after the Federal Court of Justice declared an assignment model to be legally permissible a few weeks ago, which is used in class action lawsuits.

New resistance is also forming in Great Britain.

In June, the competition appellate court cleared the way for class action lawsuits.

The lawsuit brought by the British industry association RHA alone includes claims from 18,000 plaintiffs worth 2.4 billion euros.