GM and Ford in Spain have been hit with multi-million Euro penalties for anti-competitive actions.
Spain’s competition authority fined 21 automakers and two consultancy firms 171 million euros for anti-competitive practices.
The biggest individual fines were 22.8 million euros for General Motors and 20.2 million euros for Ford Motor. French carmakers received the next highest penalties with Renault fined 18.2 million, Peugeot 15.7 million and Citroen 14.8 million.
Spain’s competition boy, the CNMC, said that the automakers acted like a cartel by exchanging sensitive details relating to car sales, repairs, maintenance activities and car parts. Information exchanged included details of price incentives to avoid a discounting war for new-car sales, according to Spanish media reports.
This is the biggest fine imposed by the CNMC, which began a series of investigations into Spain’s motor trade in 2013. To date these have involved 124 companies. Last March CNMC fined 45 Toyota, Hyundai and Opel dealers for setting up a price cartel in Madrid and Galicia. It has recently launched an investigation into Volvo dealers.
