Deadline for fleets to join truck cartel claim fast approaching

Commercial fleet operators affected by a truck cartel have until February 14 to register for a class action brought by the Road Haulage Association (RHA) in the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT). 

Five major truck manufacturers were collectively fined €2.93bn by the European Commission in 2016, for fixing prices between 1997 and 2011. 

The price-fixing related specifically to the market for the manufacturing of medium (weighing between 6 to 16 tonnes) and heavy trucks (weighing over 16 tonnes).

Royal Mail and BT were awarded approximately £17.5 million in damages against DAF Trucks following a decision by the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal in 2023.

The pair had claimed they were overcharged for vehicles leased and bought from in the long-running pan-European trucks cartel scandal.

The tribunal’s decision represented the UK’s first successful follow-on damages claim against a participant in the EU truck cartel.

The Competition Appeal Tribunal granted the Road Haulage Association (RHA) a Collective Proceedings Order (CPO) in August, allowing it to seek compensation for fleets. 

The claim is being brought as an opt in class action, which means that anyone who is eligible must opt in, in order to be eligible for compensation if it is awarded. 

Eligible claimants must register their interest before February 14 to ensure that the opt in process can be completed by the February 28 deadline.

Those eligible to opt in include companies, firms and individuals who purchased or leased new and used trucks of six tonnes and over, registered in the UK between: January 17, 1997, and January 31, 2014, for new trucks; and January 17, 1997, and January 31, 2015, for used trucks.

Personal representatives of the estate of any person falling within the class who died on or after July 17, 2018, can also opt in.

The European Commission's investigation in 2016 revealed that MAN, Volvo/Renault, Daimler (Mercedes-Benz), Iveco and DAF had engaged in a cartel relating to:

•    Coordinating prices at "gross list" level for medium and heavy trucks in the European Economic Area (EEA). The "gross list" price level relates to the factory price of trucks, as set by each manufacturer. Generally, these gross list prices are the basis for pricing in the trucks industry. The final price paid by buyers is then based on further adjustments, done at national and local level, to these gross list prices.

•    The timing for the introduction of emission technologies for medium and heavy trucks to comply with the increasingly strict European emissions standards (from Euro 3 through to the currently applicable Euro 6).

•    The passing on to customers of the costs for the emissions technologies required to comply with the increasingly strict European emissions standards (from Euro 3 through to the currently applicable Euro 6).

The infringement was EU-wide and lasted 14 years, from 1997 until 2011, when the Commission carried out unannounced inspections of the firms.

The collusion identified by the Commission concerned the new emission technologies required by the Euro III to Euro VI environmental standards, specifically coordination on timing and coordination on passing on of costs of emission technologies for trucks compliant with newly introduced emissions standards.

The collusion was not aimed at avoiding or manipulating compliance with the new emission standards, said the Commission.

Daimler (Mercedes-Benz) was fined €1.08 billion, DAF was fined €752m, Iveco €494m, and Volvo/Renault €670m.

MAN (part of Volkswagen Group) was not fined, as it reported the cartel to the European Commission.

Scania, also part of Volkswagen Group, was fined more than €880m for its participation in a truck cartel the following year (2017). 

Fleets can visit www.truckcartellegalaction.com to register a claim.