By Chris Jones - 6th April 2006
Car maker Opel has failed in its bid to overturn a European commission ruling that stopped it limiting cross-border sales.
The 2000 ruling said that Opel had broken EU law by preventing its Dutch wholesalers from selling cars to dealers in neighbouring countries where cars cost more.
The commission called Opel’s breach of EU law “very serious” because of the strong position of the Opel brand on the Dutch and other EU markets.
Opel was fined €43m by the commission, although the sum was later reduced to €35.5m in 2003 following an appeal to the court of first instance.
The car maker then lodged a second appeal, calling on the court of justice – the EU’s highest court – challenging the court’s decision to uphold the commission’s original judgement.
The court of justice said it did not have jurisdiction to examine whether the court of first instance had correctly assessed the facts during the first appeal.
But it did rule that there was no evidence to show that the court of first instance had “obviously distorted the evidence” when assessing the appeal, as Opel had claimed.
It also upheld the court of first instance’s assessment that Opel’s scheme offering bonuses to dealers who did not sell cars to other EU countries was in breach of EU rules.
The Opel decision comes just six months after competition commissioner Neelie Kroes fined French company Peugeot €49.5m on the same grounds.
She said that the French company’s attempts to stop its Dutch dealerships from exporting cars to other EU member states was “highly detrimental to consumers”.
Kroes is determined to clamp down on any practices that she believes keep European car prices unjustifiably high.
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