EU fines BMW, VW 875 million euros for clean emissions tech cartel

Brussels (dpa) – The European Commission fined BMW and Volkswagen 875 million euros (1 billion dollars) on Thursday for colluding on the development of emissions-cleaning technology for diesel cars.

Five carmakers – Daimler, BMW, VW plus its group brands Audi and Porsche – restricted competition that could have helped clean up air more quickly, Margrethe Vestager, the bloc’s top competition official, told journalists in Brussels.

For more than five years between 2009 and 2014, the companies arranged among each other not to go beyond what was required by EU emission standards, the commission vice-president said. “And they did so despite the relevant technology being available.”

“All citizens must be able to trust that car manufacturers compete with one another also when it comes to reducing harmful emissions from cars,” Vestager stressed.

The penalties concern the development of technology using so-called AdBlue or urea, which is injected into the exhaust gas stream to reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions – harmful to both human health and the environment.

Volkswagen must pay close to 500 million euros, and BMW close to 375 million euros.

All parties acknowledged the cartel and agreed to settle, the commission said, but Daimler avoided a fine of some 727 million euros as it revealed the existence the scheme.

The fine issued is smaller than BMW at least had initially feared: In 2019 the German carmaker said it would set aside more than 1 billion euros.

The collusion occurred in so-called “circle of five” technical meetings between BMW, Daimler, VW, Audi and Porsche, according to the commission, which acts of the watchdog of the bloc’s strict competition rules.

Concretely, the carmakers settled among other things on a tank size for AdBlue and on the range until the next refill was required, despite knowing that injecting more of the liquid could reduce NOx pollution in many cases, Vestager said.

“Today’s case is about how legitimate corporation has gone wrong. Carmakers developed a very good technology, but decided not to compete to exploit it to its full potential,” she stated.

The antitrust fines issued on Thursday are separate from the global diesel emissions scandal that kicked off in 2015, though similarly it involves environmental concerns.

The commission began its investigations in earnest with inspections at the offices of BMW, Daimler, Volkswagen and Audi in Germany in October 2017.

In 2019, the EU executive formally notified the companies of its preliminary conclusions following initial investigation.

Back then, the commission found that they had colluded between 2006 and 2014 in relation to two systems to reduce NOx emissions from diesel cars, as well as harmful particulate matter released by cars with petrol engines.

The commission’s final conclusions presented on Thursday were therefore more limited in scope.