The European Court of Justice (ECJ), the continent’s top court, has ruled that Volkswagen was not involved in price fixing, confirming an earlier court ruling that the executive European Commission was wrong to decide against the car maker.
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The Commission had originally decided that Volkswagen fixed prices illegally by asking car dealers to set a minimum price for the Passat in 1996 and 1997, Reuters reported. The Comission fined the car maker EUR31m ($US39.50m) in 2001.
The case centred around agreements that dealerships signed with Volkswagen in which it said it could issue non-binding recommendations for pricing the car, according to the report.
The Commission had argued that this amounted to price fixing, but Europe’s second highest court, the Court of First Instance, said the Commission had not sufficiently proved that car dealers were willingly taking part in a cartel.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) agreed with this, Reuters added.
Volkswagen reportedly said it was satisfied with the result.
Reuters noted that the ECJ had previously upheld a EUR90m fine against Volkswagen for trying to prevent Germans and Austrians importing cars from Italy where they were cheaper.
