The other brands will now have to look at this too”

The other brands will now have to look at this too”

Mr. Dr. Thyri, congratulations on the success that the Supreme Court has now essentially confirmed the judgment against Peugeot. How does that feel?

That's nice, of course. I'm especially happy for my client, who had to show a lot of nerve in the process for many years and that's always nice when it ends well.

What were your expectations: Did you expect the Supreme Court to confirm the first instance judgment?

You never know. But the first court decision was very well made and the findings were well founded. In this respect, I had hope that a large part would stay that way and that's what happened.

What exactly hasn't been confirmed?

So everything was actually confirmed. There is only one point that the Supreme Court confirms in principle, but where it says that we still have to see whether it is so serious that it also constitutes market abuse. This concerns the restriction of the dealer's freedom to set prices through Peugeot's promotional guidelines. This means that the retailer has no freedom to set his own prices, which he must be able to do from an antitrust perspective. Instead, he feels an economic compulsion to take part in these actions. But to what extent this happened and whether there really was market abuse, the cartel court must now determine in more detail. In a so-called procedural supplement.

The judgment is receiving widespread attention throughout Europe, even beyond the individual Peugeot case. What is your assessment of the extent to which there will be follow-up lawsuits or whether other manufacturers will now take action on their own to take countermeasures?

Manufacturers are already very interested in this case. It was noticeable that people were dealing with this decision and wanted to learn lessons from it. You have to evaluate your own distribution system in order to have legal certainty. We have a direct binding effect for Büchl and the other Peugeot dealers. It's not just about Mr. Büchl, but also other affected dealers on the network. But apart from that, the other brands will certainly have to take a look at this now. You have to avoid running into an open knife. Conversely, the other dealers will also look very closely at what was decided. And as a first step, everyone will probably try to find solutions through dialogue. That always makes more sense than going to court. But there will certainly be arguments and discussions. There are very different types of networks in the industry.

A personal question: Why did you take on this case back then? I guess it was about more than just money, right? What else attracted her to it?

Well, I'm an antitrust lawyer and have been dealing with this for 20 years. My market situation is such that antitrust law is primarily done by large law firms, some of which are international entities. And by and large they are very focused on representing industry and large corporations. As a result, I have noticed for years that the dealers were not really represented by the specialists. They just wanted to represent the manufacturers. That is also understandable. But for me as an individual lawyer the situation is different. I am not subject to any economic constraints. And I saw that there really are grievances and that an attempt should be made to bring this to the court.

What do you think Peugeot will do now?

The statements I have read are very brief. The verdict is final and they will now evaluate and implement it. But they have to, otherwise there would be an execution! Ideally, they now act in dialogue with retailers during implementation. PSA's willingness to engage in dialogue has not been so good in recent years. There is also the question of whether this will also lead to changes in the management of PSA. Ideally, we will now find viable solutions together. And as I said, the freedom to set prices must then be dealt with in detail after the procedure has been supplemented.

Are you expecting claims for damages?

That is certainly an issue. Remuneration that was improperly withheld due to a non-fair contractual situation is income that can be claimed under the Cartel Act. That will be checked. But I haven't talked to Mr. Büchl about that yet.

Have other companies already approached you?

There is already a lot of interest; I have had repeated inquiries ever since I started representing the case. Basically, as a dealer or even as an association, you don't dare to step out of your cover. This is a sensitive topic. But now I'm constantly receiving congratulations, including from the industry. Maybe now you can have a little more courage. But I'm not the only lawyer in Austria.