By decision of 8 July 2021, the European Commission found that BMW, Volkswagen and Daimler violated antitrust law regarding exhaust emission control for diesel vehicles in the EEA and imposed fines totalling EUR 875 million on BMW and Volkswagen. As a result of its early and extensive cooperation with the European Commission, Daimler, as a leniency applicant, was able to completely avoid a fine that would otherwise have been imposed on the company.
This is the first decision of the European Commission to sanction antitrust-related conduct that merely concerns the restriction of technical progress and does not relate to price fixing, market sharing or customer allocation.
The following Gleiss Lutz antitrust team represented Daimler in these proceedings: Dr. Ulrich Denzel (partner, Stuttgart), Dr. Gregor Wecker (counsel, Stuttgart, both lead), Dr. Christian von Köckritz (partner, Brussels), Dr. Harald Weiß (counsel, Brussels), Dr. Laura Roßmann (Stuttgart), Helen Haffner (Stuttgart), Susann Wittig (Stuttgart), Jose Benitez Fernandez (Stuttgart), Moritz Krause (Stuttgart), Ramona Wehrle (Stuttgart).
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