The European Commission said on Thursday three German carmakers breached EU antitrust rules by restricting competition in emission cleaning for new passenger diesel cars, fining BMW and Volkswagen Group a total of €875m. "The five car manufacturers Daimler, BMW, Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche possessed the technology to reduce harmful emissions beyond what was legally required under EU emission standards. Volkswagen said it was considering whether to take legal action against the fine, saying the penalty over technical talks about emissions technology with other carmakers set a questionable precedent. "Furthermore it is imposing fines, although the content of the talks was never implemented and no customers suffered any harm as a result," Volkswagen added in a statement. "This underlines that there has never been any allegation of unlawful manipulation of emission control systems by the BMW Group," the company said in a statement.

Source: Irish Independent July 08, 2021 10:16 UTC