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Auto firms broke anti-trust rules
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FAW-VW, which handles Audi sales in China, is to pay 248.58 million yuan (US$40.5 million) for violating the country’s anti-monopoly law. Chrysler, whose dealerships were also found guilty of price fixing, has been ordered to pay 31.68 million yuan.
The fines imposed in each case are based on a percentage of the car companies’ sales.
An investigation by the price bureau in central China’s Hubei Province found that FAW-VW’s Audi sales unit came to monopoly agreements with 10 dealerships in the province in terms of the price of vehicles and after-sales services in 2012. And from 2013, some of the dealerships convened to form their own pricing alliance.
Chrysler and three of its dealerships were found to be involved in similar practices by the Shanghai Price Bureau.
FAW-VW is to pay 6 percent of its 2013 sales as a fine. Under China’s anti-monopoly law, violators can face fines of 1 to 10 percent of their total sales revenue for the previous year.
The Audi dealerships, considered accomplices in the case, were fined from 1 to 2 percent of their 2013 sales — a total of 29.96 million yuan. Two dealerships escaped penalty — one because it had provided evidence of the illegal practices and the other because its violation was deemed minor and had been quickly corrected.
Punishment for the Chrysler dealerships came to a total of 2.14 million yuan.
Last month, 12 Japanese auto parts suppliers were fined 1.24 billion yuan for price fixing by China’s top price regulator, the National Development and Reform Commission
That followed a combined anti-trust fine of 1.6 million yuan imposed on four BMW dealers who had been found to have manipulated market prices by forming a price alliance, the Hubei price regulator said.
Mercedes-Benz, which was found guilty of manipulating the cost of after-sales services by the price bureau in east China’s Jiangsu Province, is awaiting details of its punishment.
Adding to complaints about automakers, a group of European auto components suppliers said in a report by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China this week that their control over distribution of components led to inflated prices, The Associated Press reported. They said such an arrangement would be illegal in Europe and appealed to Chinese regulators to end it.
In other industries, companies under investigation include Qualcomm Inc, a San Diego, California-based maker of chips used in mobile phones, and software giant Microsoft Corp, according to AP.
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