The European Commission carried out unannounced inspections on Tuesday at several tire manufacturers, including Michelin, suspected of having coordinated on the sales prices of their products.
:quality(50)/2023/07/07/64a7df4c5fe71_placeholder-36b69ec8.png)
Published
Reading time: 1 min
:quality(50)/2019/09/26/phpSqNHB4.jpg)
At least four tire manufacturers saw inspectors from the European Commission’s fraud department burst into their offices on Tuesday January 30. The French Michelin, the German Continental, the Finnish Nokian and the American Goodyear have notably been targeted and the list could grow.
Around twenty inspectors and IT specialists located the offices of key people in each company, before seizing their computers and mobile phones to copy and analyze them. These industry giants are in fact suspected of having agreed on the price of replacement tires for cars, trucks and even buses sold in Europe.
The European Commission has launched a preliminary investigation, its missions involving ensuring compliance with competition rules and ensuring that consumers are not harmed. The companies concerned say they want to cooperate fully in the ongoing investigation, but the world number one, Michelin, disputes any practice of coordination on prices.
In the event of proven guilt, the bill risks being steep: the fine can reach up to 10% of a company’s annual turnover. Shares of companies in the sector lost ground on the stock market after the announcement of these surprise inspections. Continental ended the session down 1.51% to 75.88 euros, while Michelin lost 0.84% to 30.84 euros.
