Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: German execs indicted in U.S. parking heater price fixing probe, (Dec 9, 2015)
Organizations Mentioned:Eberspaecher Climate Control Systems International Beteiligungs-GmbH | Espar Inc. | Webasto
By Jeffrey May, J.D.
The former president of Espar Inc., the only company to plead guilty to conspiring to fix prices of parking heaters for commercial vehicles in an ongoing Department of Justice probe, has been indicted along with two other executives for their roles in the conspiracy. A federal grand jury in Detroit today returned an indictment against Volker Hohensee, as well as Frank Haeusler and Harald Sailer. Haeusler is a former vice president of Espar Inc.’s German affiliate, Eberspaecher Climate Control Systems International Beteiligungs-GmbH, and Sailer held the same position at Eberspaecher and remains an executive with the company, the Justice Department announced. All three individuals are German citizens (U.S. v. Haeusler).
According to the indictment, Hohensee, Haeusler, and Sailer worked together with other conspirators to artificially set aftermarket prices for parking heaters used in commercial vehicles between October 2007 and November 2012. Parking heaters are devices that heat the interior compartment of a motor vehicle independent of the operation of the vehicle’s engine. The defendants allegedly agreed to set a price floor for parking heater kits and also agreed to coordinate the timing and amount of price increases for parking heaters. According to the charge, Haeusler was employed by an unnamed German parking heater manufacturer after he left Eberspaecher and during the alleged conspiracy.
Earlier corporate guilty plea. The indictment follows a guilty plea from Espar in March to the first charge announced in the government’s probe. The company was sentenced on June 25 to pay a $14.9 million criminal fine. Espar is a wholly-owned North American subsidiary of Eberspaecher.
European Commission fines. In June, the European Commission (EC) announced that it had found that Eberspaecher and Webasto, another German parking heater manufacturer, had breached competition rules by coordinating prices and allocating customers with regards to fuel-operated parking heaters and auxiliary heaters. A fine of € 68,175,000 was imposed on Eberspaecher for its involvement in the cartel. However, Webasto received full immunity for revealing the existence of the conspiracy.
Companies: Espar Inc.; Eberspaecher Climate Control Systems International Beteiligungs-GmbH; Webasto
News: Antitrust AntitrustDivisionNews