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Germany’s top court on Tuesday ruled that claims for damages arising from antitrust violations may in principle be bundled in class-action lawsuits filed by debt collection agencies, in a case involving inflated prices for lorries.<\/p>\n
However, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) also said that if the bundling makes it impossible for the courts to provide effective legal protection, a split into multiple proceedings may be required.<\/p>\n
The case involves a multimillion-euro damages lawsuit brought by buyers of lorries after the European Union fined major manufacturers for illegal pricing agreements.<\/p>\n
The European Commission imposed fines of nearly \u20ac4 billion ($4.7 billion) on the truck manufacturers DAF, Daimler, Iveco, Scania, and Volvo\/Renault for exchanging sales prices from 1997 to 2011. MAN was exempted from penalties as a key witness.<\/p>\n
The commission left open whether buyers had suffered damages as a result of the cartel, and the truck manufacturers dispute that they did.<\/p>\n
The buyers of approximately 70,000 trucks allegedly sold at inflated prices are demanding around \u20ac500 million ($588 million) in damages from MAN, Daimler, Iveco, and Volvo\/Renault.<\/p>\n
They have assigned their claims to the debt collection and legal services provider Financialright Claims, which is acting as the sole plaintiff and will receive a 33% commission if the case is successful.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit had failed in the first instance in 2020 at the Munich Regional Court.<\/p>\n
However, in March 2024, the Higher Regional Court came to a different conclusion on appeal. The defendant truck manufacturers challenged the decision, bringing the case to Germany\u2019s top civil court.<\/p>\n
The BGH has now overturned the appeal trial’s ruling and referred the case back to Munich for a retrial and a new decision. Among other things, the Higher Regional Court must examine whether the assignments made by the lorry buyers are potentially void due to a conflict of interest with the litigation financier.<\/p>\n
The BGH also said Financialright Claims had combined a very large number of legally and factually complex claims in a disorganized manner, making it unrealistic for a single court panel to deal with the entire case within a reasonable timeframe.<\/p>\n
Following the ruling, Daimler Truck said it would continue to strongly contest the claims and maintained that customers had not suffered any financial losses.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n