The supervisor stock the U.S. has opened an investigation into the business practices of the car manufacturer BMW, as acknowledged by the Monday a spokesman for the German company in a statement to the newspaper The Wall Street Journal. “The SEC has been in contact with us and we will co-operate fully with their investigation”, said the spokesman of the German company.
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Germany investigates its automobile industry for violating the competition Brussels accuses BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen to halt the development of cars that emit less
According to the newspaper, the SEC would be investigating the bavarian manufacturer for inflating supposedly the data of their sales in the US, when you post the dealers sold vehicles yet to be marketed. It would not be the first time that the supervisor penalizes a manufacturer of automobiles by practices of this kind. Last September, the conglomerate Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) was forced to pay a fine of 40 million dollars (about 36 million euros) for having posted in their monthly bills as sold cars that had not yet been marketed.
For BMW, this research represents a new headache. The benefit of the German manufacturer suffered a fall of 74% in the first quarter of the year compared with the same period of the previous. This result can be explained by the provision of 1,400 million euros in order to face a possible fine from the European Commission, which accuses them of violating the rules of community competition. Brussels suspect that the bavarian manufacturer agreed to with its competitors Daimler and Volkswagen to stop the development of variants more clean.
last month, BMW also agreed to pay a fine of 28 million euros in Germany. In this case, the sanction zanjaba an antitrust investigation on the purchasing practices of the steel industry between 2004 and 2013.
To regulatory issues adds to the overall drop in vehicle sales in key markets, which is affecting all the big players of the industry. The benefit of BMW declined by 37.1 per cent between January and September, while in the third quarter, improved its mark: thanks to the launch of an intensive policy of cost reduction, managed to rebound by 11.7% over the same period of 2018.
