The European Commission has said BMW and Volkswagen colluded on limiting the roll-out of emissions-cutting technology and fined the carmakers €875

EU fines German carmakers over alleged cartel activities

submited by

Style Pass

2021-07-08 12:30:08

The European Commission has said BMW and Volkswagen colluded on limiting the roll-out of emissions-cutting technology and fined the carmakers €875 million.

The European Commission on Thursday said major German carmakers breached EU antitrust rules by restricting competition on clean emissions for new diesel cars.

The EU's antitrust chief, Margrethe Vestager, said Daimler, BMW, Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche, "possessed the technology to reduce harmful emissions beyond what was legally required under EU emission standards," and colluded to limit use of that technology.

Vestager added that by avoiding competition on the technology, consumers were denied the opportunity to buy less polluting cars.

With an annual turnover of around €223 billion, the fine "won't hurt VW financially," said DW Brussels correspondent Jack Parrock. However, the move is "significant ... for the EU being seen to be taking companies to task."

The penalties are connected to holding back development of technology known as Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) , which adds "AdBlue" or urea into an exhaust gas stream to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions.