Learning From The Trucks Cartel: Mitigation

By: Edward Coulson, Benjamin Blacklock & Alexandra Hildyard (Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner)

In July 2016, the European Commission (the Commission) issued a settlement decision, concluding that five prominent truck manufacturers had engaged in a cartel from 1997 to 2011. The cartel involved colluding on the prices of medium and heavy trucks, as well as coordinating the timing and allocation of costs related to emissions technologies.

Among the numerous claimants in the Trucks Cartel case, Royal Mail and BT were the first and only claimants in the UK to proceed to trial. Their claims were heard by the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) in London during a ten-week trial held from April to June 2022. In January 2023, the CAT delivered its judgment, decisively ruling in favor of the claimants, Royal Mail and BT.

While DAF has been granted permission to appeal certain aspects of the CAT’s judgment regarding the Supply Pass-on issue (as defined below), it has not sought permission to appeal the CAT’s decision on other mitigation arguments, namely its “Resale Pass-on” and “Complements” arguments (defined below)…

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