Mercedes (Photo : REUTERS)
Germany's prime carmaker Mercedes-Benz received a price-fixing fine worth 350 million yuan ($56.49 million), the highest antitrust penalty imposed on automakers by the government to date, according to a local regulator.
According to Jiangsu Province's price bureau statement posted online, Mercedes-Benz has inked agreements with various local dealers to put minimum prices for the firm's S and E Class sedans and some auto parts.
The series of transactions were reached from Jan. 2013 to July 2014.
The statement stressed out that Mercedes-Benz took a "lead role" in the monopolized pricing. Apart from this, the German firm also gave either warnings or reduced support to its partner dealers if they failed to cooperate.
The provincial price bureau also imposed price fixing fines worth 7.87 million yuan to Mercedes-Benz's dealers in Jiangsu, Suzhou, Nanjing and Wuxi.
Meanwhile, in an e-mailed statement sent to the Global Times on Thursday, Mercedes-Benz said:
"Mercedes-Benz fully respects and accepts the findings and punishment decision, and will comply immediately. At the same time, we have developed . . . a series of targeted reform measures guided by the law enforcement authorities."
The Mercedes-Benz probe is part of the government's effort to investigate antitrust allegations in the auto industry. Apart from the German carmaker, other major automobile firms have also been fined because of price fixing.
Four BMW dealers in Hubei Province were fined 1.62 million yuan for pricing monopoly in Aug. 2014, while FAW-Volkswagen along with eight Hubei-based dealers were fined 279 million yuan in September.
In the same month, Shanghai price regulators imposed a price fixing fine on U.S. automaking firm Chrysler as well as some of its dealers.
The country's antitrust law took effect in Aug. 2008 and has since played a significant role in monitoring and managing firms' behavior.
Wei Shilin, a senior partner at the Beijing-based Dacheng Law Offices, said that these kind of "antitrust probes will take place much more frequently in the future, especially in the auto sector."
