Tesco hits Swedish truck manufacturer Scania with legal action
British retail giant Tesco has launched a claim against Swedish commercial vehicle manufacturer Scania over alleged monetary losses suffered in the UK.
Tesco Store and Tesco Distribution has filed a claim into the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) against Scania and several of its British entities.
According to a summary of the claim filed on Tuesday, Tesco is claiming for damages and other monetary sums for losses it claimed to have suffered in the UK as a result of alleged infringements of competition law relating to unlawful and anti-competitive behaviour regarding Trucks.
According to the claim form, those infringements of competition law included concerted practices on pricing increases in order to align gross prices in European with the timing for the introduction of emission technologies. The claim stated that the coordination was passing on to customers the costs of the emissions technologies between 1997 and 2011.
Tesco is relying on the infringement decision by the European Commission in 2017. The European Commission found that Scania broke EU antitrust rules, after it concluded the Truck company colluded for 14 years with five other truck manufacturers on truck pricing and on passing on the costs of new technologies to meet stricter emission rules.
The European body imposed a fine over €880m against the Swedish manufacturer.
The legal challenge was filed to the CAT by Tesco’s external legal provider, City-based BCLP, with lead partner Edward Coulson on the case.
Both Tesco and Scania declined to comment due to live legal proceedings.
There is currently an ongoing class action going on at the same Tribunal over a £2bn against a “cartel” of European truck makers, over allegations they fixed the prices of lorries for more than a decade.