BEIJING (AP) – China’s government said Monday it has concluded Mercedes-Benz violated anti-monopoly law and charged excessive prices for parts, adding to a growing number of global automakers snared in an investigation of the industry.
The luxury unit of Germany’s Daimler AG abused its control over supplies of spare parts to engage in “vertical price-fixing,” according to the official Xinhua News Agency. It said investigators from the price bureau of the eastern province of Jiangsu found prices were so high that purchasing the parts used to make one Mercedes C-class car would cost the equivalent of buying 12 vehicles.
An official said earlier that Volkswagen AG’s Audi unit and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV’s Chrysler would face unspecified punishment for violating the anti-monopoly law.
Chinese regulators have launched investigations of foreign auto, technology, pharmaceutical and dairy companies over the past two years using the 2008 anti-monopoly law in an apparent effort to force down consumer prices.
“Mercedes-Benz is a typical case of vertical price fixing – that is, the use of its dominant position in after-market parts to maintain price controls,” said Zhou Gao, chief of the Jiangsu price agency’s anti-monopoly unit, according to Xinhua.