Leasing, no ‘sign’ between the houses Cars: fine rejected | FormulaPassion.it

The car manufacturers breathe a sigh of relief in Italy, on the sidelines of one decision of the Council of State able to undo definitely one maxi-fine which had been imposed, in 2019, byAntitrust. The Competition and Market Authority had accused several financial companies and car manufacturers to have formed a ‘cartel’ based on a continuous “exchange of sensitive information relating to quantities and prices, including current and future ones, between 2003 and 2017»Able to make its alleged components earn more from leasing activities.

According to Il Sole 24 Ore, the Council of State therefore confirmed the sentence of the Lazio TAR of 2020, which had in turn ‘rejected’ the Antitrust sanction which even reached the quota of 678 million euros. The fine was imposed on the main captive banks and related automotive groups, as well as on the trade associations Assofin and Assilea. According to the latter, with the decision of the Council of State, “the Guarantor Authority had not considered the structure, the role and the activities actually carried out by Assilea itself, which concerned only aggregate statistics, anonymous and never forecast data and, above all, due to the non-existence of a restrictive agreement on the market“.

The Authority’s long investigation (opened on 28 April 2017 but on assumptions collected between 2013 and 2014) was based on the collaboration of two of the companies under investigation, Daimler AG and Mercedes Benz Financial Services Italia. Also under investigation were Banca Psa Italia, Banque Psa Finance, Santander Consumer Bank, Bmw Bank, Bmw AG, Fca Bank, Fca Italy, CA Consumer Finance, Fce Bank, Ford Motor Company, General Motor Financial Italia, General Motors Company, Rci Banque, Renault, Toyota Financial Services, Toyota Motor Corporation, Volkswagen Bank and Volkswagen. According to the Antitrust, if the financing becomes an essential component of the profitability of the sale of cars, each house, which controls the captive financial companies, is affected by their activities.