A European Commission investigation into French carmaker Peugeot Citroen and its dealers involves possible “hardcore” breaches of competition law, a European Commission spokesman told Reuters on Monday.

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“Limiting a dealer’s freedom to supply foreign customers is a hardcore restriction of competition and free trade,” Tilman Lueder, spokesman for European Competition Commissioner Mario Monti, said, according to Reuters.


The news agency said that commission officials raided the offices of Peugeot Citroen in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark last week in connection with the inquiry into the firm’s retailing policy.


A company spokesman said one of the raids had targeted the head office in Paris, Reuters added.


“It was to verify whether Peugeot’s retailing policy corresponded to the regulations,” he said, according to Reuters.

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Lueder told Reuters that the case was no bigger than previous investigations concerning DaimlerChrysler and Volkswagen. Those ended in fines of 72 million euros and 90 million euros ($US95 million) respectively, among the biggest handed down by the commission’s competition department, Reuters said.


According to Reuters, the current case centred on French and German car-buyers travelling to Denmark and the Netherlands to buy Peugeot cars.


“The consumer has to have the choice to buy his vehicle where he wants in the European Community,” Lueder told Reuters but he declined to say if the commission thought the suspected anticompetitive practices were continuing and warned that it was premature to assume the firm was guilty or that the case would lead to formal proceedings.