<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Distribution cartels in the automotive sector used to be frequently dismantled and sanctioned by the European Commission and the EU Courts still some 15 years ago. In recent years, however, only a few cases have been reported at the national level of EU Member States. Is it because the distribution of new cars really ceased to be a competition problem as the European Commission declared when it removed this part of the automotive business from the specific Block Exemption Regulation for the automotive sector in 2010? The purpose of the present analysis is first to inspect the car distribution cases that emerged in the EU after the year 2000 and, second, to speculate somewhat whether new forms of distribution, brought by the digitalization of marketing and sales, cannot bring about also new risks to cartel agreements and other types of distortions of competition in car sales.</p>
</abstract>

Distribution cartels in the automotive sector used to be frequently dismantled and sanctioned by the European Commission and the EU Courts still some 15 years ago. In recent years, however, only a few cases have been reported at the national level of EU Member States. Is it because the distribution of new cars really ceased to be a competition problem as the European Commission declared when it removed this part of the automotive business from the specific Block Exemption Regulation for the automotive sector in 2010? The purpose of the present analysis is first to inspect the car distribution cases that emerged in the EU after the year 2000 and, second, to speculate somewhat whether new forms of distribution, brought by the digitalization of marketing and sales, cannot bring about also new risks to cartel agreements and other types of distortions of competition in car sales.

Distribution of new cars – no longer an issue for EU competition law?

Review of Economic Perspectives

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"Distribution of new cars \u2013 no longer an issue for EU competition law?"}

Distribution cartels in the automotive sector used to be frequently dismantled and sanctioned by the European Commission and the EU Courts still some 15 years...

Distribution of new cars – no longer an issue for EU competition law?

Published Online: Dec 30, 2021

Page range: 371 - 383

Received: Oct 08, 2020

Accepted: Aug 10, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/revecp-2021-0016

Keywords
EU competition law, distribution of new cars, vertical cartels, national competition authorities

© 2021 Václav Šmejkal, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Distribution of new cars – no longer an issue for EU competition law?

Published Online: Dec 30, 2021

Page range: 371 - 383

Received: Oct 08, 2020

Accepted: Aug 10, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/revecp-2021-0016

KeywordsEU competition law, distribution of new cars, vertical cartels, national competition authorities

© 2021 Václav Šmejkal, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
EU competition law, distribution of new cars, vertical cartels, national competition authorities