22.06.2022 00:00 h.
Between February 2006 and August 2013, during the hardest years of the economic crisis in Spain, the large vehicle manufacturers they sat down at the same table to break the rules that govern the game of the free market. For seven years, the main automobile brands met periodically in forums and exchanged sensitive and confidential information on three lines of work: margins with dealers and sales volume, after-sales service and customer loyalty, and marketing policies in the so-called car cartel case.
This exchange of information for your own benefit and to the detriment of customers allowed them manipulate prices of cars on the market and end free competition between manufacturers. During that period of time it is estimated that they sold 10 million vehicles at abusive prices, for which they pocketed more than €19 billion that the victims will be able to claim for a few months, when the term ends. However, it is estimated that only 3% will initiate a judicial litigation to recover your money.
Penalty to 21 manufacturers and 130 dealers
This situation continued over time until Seatone of the members of this cartel, joined the leniency policy and uncovered the scandals. The manufacturer pulled the blanket, explains Andoni de la Llosalawyer specializing in competition law at the firm Redi Lawyersto avoid paying a fine of 32 million of euros. “The Volkswagen group, of which Seat is a part, confessed that the main manufacturers had been agreeing on prices of automobiles”, explains the lawyer. For this offense, on July 23, 2015, in a historic resolution, the National Commission of Markets and Competition sanctioned 21 manufacturers and 130 dealers to pay a millionaire fine.
Identification plate in the CNMC building in Madrid / EP
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This fine affected practically 100% of the brands on the market, with the exception of Mazda: Citroen, Mitsubishi, BMW, Cheverolet, Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Ford, Opel, Honda, Hyundai, KIA, Mercedes. Benz, Nissan, Peugeot, Porsche, Renault, Seat, Lexus, Toyota, Audi, Skoda, VW, Saab and Volvo. All of them appealed and, in 2018, the National audience ordered them to pay (including Mazda). Between April and December 2021, the supreme court has been ratifying all the sentences that condemn the manufacturers. The jurists consider that, from the issuance of the sentence of each brand, those affected they are one year old to file the corresponding claim. However, “as the responsibility is joint and several they can claim any of the convicted, regardless of the model of his car,” says De la Llosa.
“There was no competition”
The firm estimates that of the almost 10 million people affected, will not claim even 3%. Many of the victims of the cartel are not even aware that they were scammed. Paul Chamizopresident of the Association of People Affected by the Baptized as car cartel, he found out that he was one of those affected by chance. He himself explained it in a press conference offered last November. “I’m an architect. mid 2008in the midst of the real estate crisisthe need arose to acquire a car for the family with the financial effort that this entailed. After looking at many dealers and among many brands, we couldn’t find a cheaper price, it didn’t matter, there was no competition. In the end we decided and bought”, recalls Chamizo. “Recently, by chance, I saw a news item that talked about this and I discovered that the brands had agreed on the prices between them”.
To find out if one has been a victim of the cartel’s evil arts, De la Llosa encourages all those who have bought a car in Spain between February 2006 and August 2013 to which consult on the web if your vehicle is one of those affected. It’s as simple as filling three facts: the month of purchase, the year and the model. In the event that the car is affected by the surcharge marked by the organization, the next step –in the event of wanting to claim– is to present the invoice o order document. If you do not already have this document –most victims do not keep it– you can present the Treasury model 576, “which is the registration tax and not the circulation tax”, explains the lawyer. This document can be simply requested from the Tax Agency and is used to file the claim.
a slow process
If the affected person decides to claim, De la Llosa explains that there are two possible ways: make a claim personallyso one must appear in court, or assign your right to claim to a third party, the option that this firm is betting on. In their case, they manage it together with the german group CDC, specialized in this type of claims. “What they do is buy the claim from the injured party. The group buys thousands of claims and they put a single judicial procedure in Spain. In case the trial is lost, the costs are assumed by them, who are the ones who will appear in court, ”explains the lawyer.
However, the process will be slow. “We do not believe that this will last less than four or five years”, they lament. These deadlines are due to the fact that, in the first instance, claims usually take a year. But they know that the automakers will file an appeal. “The appeals in a provincial hearing it can take four or five years”, they express. The reason is that those affected must present the respective demands in the home from the car manufacturer. These companies are registered in Madrid, Barcelona, and to a lesser extent, in Valladolid and Lugo, so they will be the commercial courts of these cities those who will have to solve these causes. “They will be 37 or 38 people that they will have to deal with the tens of thousands of lawsuits from those affected. It is not unreasonable to think that this will last for seven years”, regrets De la Llosa.
They will be able to recover about 5,000 euros
As for the amount that those affected will receive, De la Llosa considers that it is reasonable to expect a figure between 3,000 and 5,000 euros. The claim includes overrun that the victims paid for the vehicle – which usually means the 15% of purchase value— to which must be added the legal interests and, in case of winning, the costas of the trial.
Although hundreds of thousands of people have already claimed, of the almost 10 million Spaniards affected, the firm believes that it will not sue is a 3%. “Not to say and 1%”, he assures. The cartel always wins. In this sense, according to the report made by the experts, it is estimated that if the cartel had sold 7.8 million cars –he sold almost 10– and taking into account that he inflated the price in 3.000 euros to each vehicle, pocketed more than €19 billion illegally. For these facts, those involved in the plot were sentenced to a fine of 140 million. “The fine is ridiculous. It more than compensates them. It would stop compensating them if they claimed the nine million-odd people, something that will never happen, ”says the lawyer.
They refuse a friendly settlement
The cartel knows it. For this reason, the big manufacturers have closed down to negotiate a friendly solution with the defenses of those affected. In addition to having the first swords of the legal profession at their disposal, “in Spain the cartelists do not reach any agreement because they have legitimate tricks to win these cases, because they know that will require less people than the one that initially initiates the process and because, due to formal defects, some of the demands will be dismissed”.
In addition to the ridiculous fine they have had to face and the consequent reputational damage, for them there will be no further criminal consequences. “There is an article in the Penal Code that contemplates prison sentences for committing a joint price alteration, but it has never been applied in history. The person in charge of a company has never been criminally prosecuted for being part of a cartel,” says De la Llosa. The case of automobiles, condemned by the Supreme Court for acting in bad faith by distorting the market to increase profits, is not an exception. “Everyone is affected by a cartel and he doesn’t know it”, assures the lawyer. “From the lechelos shower gels or the trucks”, he denounces.
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