OFT passes CV cartel investigation to EC
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THE OFFICE OF Fair Trading (OFT) has closed its civil investigation into suspected cartel behaviour among CV manufacturers in the UK and handed the matter over to the European Commission as part of its wider investigation into the European truck industry.
The OFT investigation, launched in September 2010, involved approaches to all the major UK truck manufacturers, and hit the headlines with a raid the same month on the Milton Keynes offices of Mercedes-Benz UK with the arrest of Ian Jones (then MD of the firm’s CV division). Jones was later released without charge.
The OFT, which also closed a separate criminal investigation into suspected cartel activity in December 2011, says the civil investigation has been dropped “on the grounds of administrative priority” and that it “has not reached any view as to whether or not the parties involved have breached competition law”.