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Dark clouds over the Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg
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The EU Commission has imposed competition fines in the millions against the German carmaker BMW and Volkswagen.
Because of illegal agreements on so-called Adblue tanks for better exhaust gas cleaning, BMW is to pay around 373 million euros, Volkswagen a good 502 million euros, as the commission announced.
SPIEGEL had uncovered the agreements, read the full story here.
Daimler was also involved in the cartel, but benefits from a leniency program and remains unpunished - otherwise 727 million euros would have been due.
The Volkswagen Group also received at least one key witness discount.
Without him, the Wolfsburg would have had to pay a fine twice as high.
While BMW wants to accept the settlement, Volkswagen is considering appealing the amount of the fine.
Brussels is entering "uncharted territory" in terms of competition law
With the procedure, Brussels had entered "uncharted territory under antitrust law", announced BMW.
The subject of the investigation was not price or area agreements - nevertheless, the EU Commission applied the standards of such a "classic" cartel when calculating the fine and only considered the novelty of the case by means of a discount.
Despite the allegations that have largely been dropped, this approach leads to the amount of the fine that has now been set.
In 2019, BMW had set aside a provision of 1.4 billion euros due to the allegations, of which around one billion euros had already been released in May of this year because the Commission had dropped certain allegations.
Adblue tanks in newer generations of diesel cars contain special urea solutions.
The mixtures ensure more efficient exhaust gas cleaning and thus a reduction in harmful nitrogen oxide emissions.
hba / dpa / Reuters
