Eindhoven's DAF Trucks set reached €550 mil. in settlements for cartel case

In the first quarter of this year, Eindhoven truck manufacturer DAF Trucks reached some 550 million euros worth of settlements with various transport companies. The company will compensate for the damage the companies suffered because they paid too much for DAF trucks between 1997 and 2011, Financieele Dagblad reports. In 2016, the European Commission found DAF and other European truck manufacturers guilty of making prohibited price agreements.

A document that Paccar, which has owned DAF Trucks since 1996, sent to the American stock exchange authorities shows that it made a provision of $600 million, or approximately 550 million euros, to compensate transporters who had submitted damage claims in the cartel case. Various European transport companies have submitted damage claims since the European Commission’s ruling in 2016.

According to Paccar, European judges have already ruled on several cartel-related damage claims this year. Some rulings were in DAF’s favor, others not. DAF appealed against the rulings against it. Depending on further rulings, Paccar will increase or decrease the money set aside for damage settlements.

According to FD, there have been at least two rulings against DAF in the past six months. In February, a British court ruled that DAF Trucks must pay damages to Royal Mail and British Telecom because of the truck cartel. And in November, DAF lost a case filed by a fruit transporter in Portugal.

The Dutch transport organization TLN and transport insurer TVM filed a mass claim against DAF and four other truck manufacturers with the court in Amsterdam last year. The court will rule in the autumn. The plaintiffs claim that their transporters paid between 15 and 33 percent too much per truck due to the price agreements between the manufacturers.