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Road Haulage Association seeks compensation from truck makers after cartel is exposed

Ian Pryer

14th June 2017

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A virtual hat tip to one of my own students, Ben Wilkinson, for spotting this story on the BBC Business website today. It's gone straight in to my Edexcel Business A Level Theme 2 Scheme of Work for next year for the section on Competition Legislation.


5 truck makers have already been censured by the European commission for a price fixing cartel that lasted 14 years. 4 of the firms (Volvo, Daimler, Iveco & DAF) were fined a record 2.93 billion euros last year. MAN Group escaped a fine because it was the whistleblower.

Now the UK's Road Haulage Association (RHA) is launching a claim for compensation on behalf of its members who presumably overpaid for trucks across this 14 year period.

The RHA believes that haulage firms were overcharged by £6000 per truck and 650,000 trucks were sold in the time period in question. By these calculations the bill could reach an eye-watering £3.9 billion. This time, MAN won't escape the financial hit if the claim is successful since this is to recompense haulage companies who paid more than a fair market price from all firms including MAN between 1997 and 2011.

Read the full BBC article here.

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Ian Pryer

Head of Economics and Business, Hills Road Sixth Form College, Cambridge since September 2014. Previously at Freman College, Buntingford for four years firstly as an NQT/class teacher and then has Head of Department. Formerly worked in retail financial services for nearly a decade. Husband, father and lover of Watford FC, darts and cooking.