"We were irritated," BMW purchasing director markus duesmann told the "frankfurter allgemeine sonntagszeitung" newspaper. "In retrospect, it is a strange feeling that we were talking to competitors about cooperation while their lawyers had already reported the cooperation to the competition authorities."
Daimler did not want to comment on the accusations. A spokesman said when asked: "we do not comment on this."
The EU commission is currently carrying out a preliminary investigation into the allegations of. Employees of the brussels authorities have already carried out searches at BMW. The bavarians as well as daimler and VW including their subsidiaries audi and porsche are said to have exchanged information about their cars, costs and suppliers in secret circles for years. Such agreements among car manufacturers are quite common – for example, to agree on standards for charging electric cars. The question is, however, whether in this case a boundary was crossed.
BMW wants to fulfill existing cooperation agreements with competitors, but initially refrains from new cooperations.
Daimler had made the leniency application public on friday. The swabians are said to have beaten volkswagen to the punch; according to this, the lower saxons have also submitted an application. The key witness in antitrust proceedings can usually hope for a gross reduction in fines or even complete immunity from prosecution. However, it is still unclear what is actually true about the accusations.