VW Group Dealers Fined for Price Fixing in Spain

MADRID – The Commission for Market and Competition (CNMC), a government watchdog agency, has fined 95 Volkswagen, Audi, and SEAT dealers €41.13 million ($51.94 million) in a third investigation into suspected price-fixing practices.

Two auto dealer associations are included among the 95.

Earlier fines to Volkswagen’s SEAT arm and 11 of its dealers have been forgiven by the CNMC, because SEAT was the whistleblower that initially led the CNMC to open its investigation in September 2013.

Two consultants – ANT Servicalidad and Horwath Auditors Spain – were sanctioned again in this latest round. They already were listed among the companies previously hit with fines under the CNMC investigation.

The competition agency contends the dealers agreed to fix prices and exchange market information, creating cartels in several geographic zones surrounding Madrid, Catalonia, Andalusia, North, Asturias and Valencia. The cartels existed for various lengths of time, with the longest in place between 2006 and mid-2013.

The CNMC believes the cartels had a clear economic impact on car buyers who were charged higher prices and low-balled on their trade-ins.

F. Tomé, a VW dealer in Madrid, was hit with biggest fine, more than €2.87 million ($3.62 million).

The sanctions imposed by the agency are not firm, and FACONAUTO, the Spanish dealers association, insists they should be appealed to a higher court. But even then, those affected still would need to pay the fine and hope for reimbursement later.

Now the CNMC is turning its attention to similar cases involving some Nissan and Volvo dealers. To date, €52 million ($66 million) in fines have been levied for price fixing among Opel, Hyundai, Land Rover, Toyota and Volkswagen Group dealers.