UK retailers sue truckmakers over alleged price fixing

Several major UK retailers sued truckmakers including Volvo AB over a historic 3.8 billion euro ($4 billion) price-fixing cartel in relation to emissions technologies.

J Sainsbury Plc, John Lewis Partnership Plc  and Asda Stores Ltd filed an antitrust in London against Volvo and Mercedes-Benz Group AG, among others, according to court documents filed Monday. Lawyers for the retailers said that the suit is connected with two 2016 and 2017 European Commission decisions that issued the auto giants with hefty fines for colluding to fix prices over 14 years across.

British retailers operated a “substantial number” of trucks during the period covered by those decisions, Sarah Houghton, a lawyer at Mishcon de Reya representing them, said in an emailed statement. The companies aim to “to recover their losses suffered as a result of the uncompetitive pricing levels set by the cartel.” 

The suit doesn’t yet contain any public documents laying out the details of the claim.

“We operated a substantial number of trucks during the period covered by the European Commission decisions and suffered harm as a result of the prices of those trucks being set at uncompetitive levels,” John Lewis said in a statement. 

Representatives at Asda, Sainsbury, Volvo and Mercedes didn’t respond to requests for comment.