ZDK welcomes Austrian antitrust law decision for car dealers

ZDK welcomes Austrian antitrust law decision for car dealers

In a long-standing legal dispute between an Upper Austrian Peugeot dealer and Peugeot Austria (PSA), the court ruled in the first instance that the general importer for Peugeot vehicles in Austria had violated the ban on abuse of market power in various aspects. “We welcome the fact that a dealer in Austria has taken this arduous legal process and has now achieved success with the first instance decision,” says ZDK Managing Director Axel Koblitz. “The decision is a positive signal for retailers in Europe.” An important aspect of the decision for dealers in Germany, for example, is that dealers must not actually be forced to take part in the importer's promotions for economic reasons, because this would restrict the freedom of pricing for the end customer. The setting of deliberately inflated sales targets and sales to end customers via own branches at such low prices that these are not economically viable for affiliated dealers are also abusive. Bonus payments to the retailer should also not be made dependent on the results of customer satisfaction surveys. “We will now deal intensively with the details of the decision and closely follow the further course of the legal dispute, as it is unlikely that this first instance decision will remain,” said Axel Koblitz.