Under cartel suspicion

Agreements between five automotive manufacturers could have laid the foundation for the diesel scandal.

Federal Minister of Justice Maas sees the manufacturers in the duty of the exhaust gas retrofits for diesel vehicles.

The costs are unlikely to stick to the car buyers, said the SPD politician of the German press agency. They would not be responsible for dubious or manipulated software in their vehicles. Maas stressed that it should be in the interest of the industry to preserve its credibility and thus also many thousands of jobs in Germany. At a "diesel summit" on August 2, the Federal Government plans to establish a small pollutant emission with several countries and car parks. It is also about retrofitting models with Euro 5 and 6 standard with new software.

In the light of the latest allegations of the cartel, the Greens deputy for the European Parliament, Cramer, called for a tough legal action against German motorists. It is about "serious crimes," Cramer in the German radio (audio link). He considers the "Spiegel" report, which Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, BMW and Daimler have been trying to say in secret workcourses on technology, costs and suppliers since the 1990s. He had emanated from collusion from the outset, as no other car maker had shown his finger on VW, when their exhaust gas manipulations were known.

According to Cramer, automobile groups now want to prevent penalties with self-reports. By agreements 30 billion euro profit had emerged - that the Autobauer now want to give nothing of it, is "sad reality". The car conglomerates could now be the same as the energy suppliers who had ignored renewable energies for 20 years. The automotive industry had ignored the innovative technology for its own damage and thus destroyed jobs. He also welcomed the intervention of EU Commissioner for Industry, Bienkowska, and their call for the removal of all manipulated vehicles.

BMW's former chief economist, Becker, also said in the Dlf, if the accusations against the five car drivers are right, at least 50 board members would have to be exchanged. They were to blame and not the 800,000 employees of the auto industry - "brave citizens" who would be dismissed if they only took an eraser. In his opinion, the cartel should also have material consequences - with fines in billions. It was not a cavalier conflict.

According to the opinion of the legal professor Kersting from the University of Duesseldorf, car buyers could, according to an antitrust lawyer, complain about the action of the autobahns - if cars were sold by possible cartel agreements on a worse technical level than would have been possible.

According to "Spiegel", the most spectacular case of the allegedly unlawful agreements is that the corporations have also agreed on technology for exhaust gas purification of their diesel vehicles and laid the basis for the diesel scandal. The automakers are still silent on the allegation of secret agreements.