Spain: Suit filed against European cartel of truck makers

Some 4,500 claimants affected by a scam committed by a truck cartel have filed a claim for over €700 million (US$800.3 million) for the premium they paid at the time of purchasing their vehicles. In total there are around 7,300 claims involving more than 34,000 trucks.

The law firm taking on the case in Spain, CSS Abogados, estimates that on average the affected paid 16.35% per vehicle over the original price due to actions taken by the manufacturers Daimler, Iveco, Man, Renault, Volvo, Daf, and Scania, which from 1997 to 2011 fixed the prices of medium and high-tonnage trucks.

The cartel, originally detected and sanctioned by the authorities of the European Union, received a fine of €3 billion (US$3.4 billion) at the time. Brussels also accused the group of deliberately delaying the entry into the market of vehicles with technology to reduce polluting emissions, and transferring the costs of adopting such technology to their customers.