truck line up 2

A price-fixing compensation action has attracted more than 2,000 hauliers since it went live in June of this year, the RHA said today.

According to the association, which is leading the action before the Competition Appeal Tribunal in London with support from legal counsel Backhouse Jones and Exchange Chambers, 650 other hauliers have also expressed an interest.

The RHA, which has funding from Therium for the legal action, claimed those already signed up represent circa 120,000 vehicles at 6-tonnes up that had been purchased during the cartel period (1997 to 2011).

A number of other groups are active and trying to establish support for class-action activity of their own. The situation is increasingly reminiscent of the Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) claims industry that sprung up after the courts ruled that the insurance had been miss-sold by lenders in 2012

Last year, the European Commission handed out a record €2.9bn (£2.5bn) fine to five major truck manufacturers after it found they co-ordinated truck pricing and colluded on passing on the costs of compliance with emissions rules.

MAN, Volvo Group (which owns Volvo Trucks and Renault Trucks), Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler, Iveco and Daf were all found to have broken EU competition rules by forming a cartel to discuss the coordination of factory prices for trucks; timings for the introduction of emissions technology; and passing on the cost of such technology to customers.

Scania's involvement is still subject to investigation.

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