The European Commission is considering delaying proposed changes to the Block Exemption Act, which restricts new car sales to manufacturers and their franchised agents, and confines dealers to sales and service in defined areas, the Guardian newspaper said.
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“I am ready to reflect on the usefulness of a somewhat longer transition period”, Competition Commissioner Mario Monti told the paper, adding that he had been subject to “heavy lobbying efforts against the proposal”.
The Guardian said that most of the lobbying has come from powerful German car makers and that German chancellor Gerhard Schroder even went to Brussels this month to demand the reforms be sidelined because they would lead to job losses and damage his country#;s economy.
The EC “left itself open to ridicule after it bowed to intensive lobbying from the German car industry”, the Guardian said.
However the newspaper added that Monti indicated there was no chance he would mothball the measure altogether.
He reportedly told MEPs that “we should not fall victim to the dark scenarios that are often repeated by lobbyists,” the Guardian said.
