In a press release issued today, BMW Group said that the European Commission has dropped most of its charges of antitrust violations. The Bavarian carmaker agreed to a settlement proposed by the European Commission that will bring these proceedings to an end. Part of the settlement, the European Commission confirmed that the investigation concluded with this settlement solely concerned possible infringements of competition law.
Furthermore, the European Commission also states “that there is no indication of collusion between the parties relating to the use of prohibited defeat devices to manipulate exhaust gas tests.” The same press release states that the fine issued by EU pertains to discussions between automotive manufacturers that took place around ten years ago.
“From the BMW Group perspective, the talks were aimed at creating a customer-friendly AdBlue filling infrastructure to support an effective exhaust gas treatment system. These discussions had no influence whatsoever on the company’s product decisions,” said BMW in a statement.
Despite the Commission dropping most of its charges, BMW was fined 372.8 million euros. BMW ends their official statement with the following:
“The BMW Group made it clear from the start of the antitrust proceedings that it considered the allegations made at that time to be exaggerated and unjustified. For this reason, unlike the other competitors involved, the company did not prematurely admit its guilt by applying for leniency. Instead, after careful internal preparation and examination of the substance of the case, a comprehensive statement was submitted to the European Commission. As a result, the Commission dropped most of its original allegations against the BMW Group.”
