The President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection announced today the imposition of financial penalties on Iveco Poland and 10 truck distributors and their managers, amounting to a total of PLN 238 million.
Such large penalties result from the scale of the infringements found in connection with the formation of a specific cartel on the truck sales market and its duration – almost 10 years.
President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, Tomasz Chróstny:
Prohibited agreements between entrepreneurs always mean losses for the recipients of their products or services, including consumers. Market division means that buyers cannot take advantage of the competitive offer of other entities. In turn, price fixing means the inability to buy products cheaper than at predetermined prices. This was the case with the collusion on the truck market.
What was this agreement supposed to be about? In June 2009, a cartel was established between Iveco Poland and distributors of imported trucks, dividing the sales market between them – this collusion lasted until May 2019.
In simple terms, there was a so-called “regionalization” in which a given local distributor had priority in serving customers who wanted to buy vehicles from their previously assigned region. If a customer from a region assigned to another distributor came, they were directed to that distributor, or they were offered a prohibitive purchase price.
Everything was supervised by Iveco Poland, which used various means, mainly by applying discounts and bonuses (or taking them away), to put pressure on distributors, persuading them to stop selling vehicles to customers from other regions.
The President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection imposed fines for participation in this agreement on Iveco Poland and 10 distributors and 10 managers – four of them had their fines reduced due to their use of the leniency programme (they provided significant evidence of the existence of the collusion).
Penalties imposed on entrepreneurs:
- Iveco Poland – PLN 155,561,291.58
- Uni-Truck – 46,811,461.41 PLN
- CTC – PLN 13,785,927.31
- Siltruck – 5,971,959.54 PLN
- PUH Exmot – 5,328,604.34 PLN
- DBK – 4,531,844.71 PLN
- On Road Truck Services – 3 705 986,73 zł
- ADF Auto – 1,126,634.02 PLN
- STC – 758,933.97 PLN
- Trans-Poz in bankruptcy – PLN 605,383.81
- Truck Nord Center – 410,916.33 PLN
Penalties imposed on managers:
- Daniel Wolszczak (Iveco Poland) – PLN 490,000
- Krzysztof Biesek (PUH Exmot) – PLN 360,000
- Marian Czapka (Siltruck) – PLN 315,000
- Andrzej Korcik (Uni-Truck) – PLN 315,000
- Tomasz Urbanowicz (CTC) – PLN 280,000
- Dariusz Mazanek (Uni-Truck) – PLN 280,000
- Ireneusz Sobieski (DBK) – PLN 183,750
- Michał Stankowiak (Uni-Truck) – PLN 112,000
- Daniel Kubieniec (CTC) – PLN 98,000
- Jacek Chodasewicz (CTC) – PLN 77,000
Source: Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.
Stock Image from Depositphotos.
Source: antyweb.pl
