On 4 March 2021, Iveco was ordered by the Competition Appeal Tribunal to provide data disclosure in a damages lawsuit including claimants energy group Suez, waste-management group Veolia and industrial-product supplier Wolseley (“VSW proceedings”). The VSW proceedings concern the truck cartel and are due to commence in late 2023 at the earliest. The application related to data from dealers through which Iveco sold trucks, both Iveco-owned dealers and independent dealers. The tribunal considered these data significant and relevant to the issues in the case at hand, at least in so far as necessary to determine the price paid for the trucks to the dealers by end customers and its breakdown (for example, whether discounts were applied or not). However, Iveco has no control over the records of independent dealers and the tribunal considered that effecting such disclosure would be burdensome and costly, as well as impracticable. The tribunal therefore urged the parties to reach an agreement on how to provide disclosure to the extent reasonably necessary for the information to assist in determining the net end customer price and to be made available at proportionate cost. This resulted in a compromise, namely that the parties were to agree on a selection of one Iveco-owned dealer in each of France and Germany (out of a total of 10 dealers) and have those dealers provide general descriptions on how trucks were priced, how and at what level the price decisions were taken and on what information such decisions were based. Furthermore, Iveco was to conduct proportionate and reasonable searches for and disclose and provide inspection of certain data/documents of the relevant Iveco-owned dealers in relation to domestic sales in the cartel period.[1]

[1] Competition Appeal Tribunal 4 March 2021, [2021] CAT 6, 1292/5/7/18/ (T).