On 28 April 2022, the Landgericht Stuttgart denied a claim from Themis Schaden GmbH, a German claim vehicle, against Daimler in a class action relating to the truck cartel.[1] Themis Schaden claimed for around 350 underlying freight forwarders an amount of approximately EUR 96 million in damage in connection with the truck cartel established by the European Commission in 2016 and 2017. However, the court did not award the claim. It concurred with Daimler’s defence that Themis Schaden had no claim because the assignment agreements were invalid. Under German law, claim vehicles and their assignment agreements must comply with the Rechtsdienstleistungsgesetz, the law that prescribes rules for claim vehicles. The court ruled that the assignment agreements used by Themis Schaden did not comply with said law. The court also held that the claimant’s assignment model ignored the limits of its licence for class actions and that the assignment model boiled down to an unsolvable conflict of interest for the claimant.

[1] Press release of Landgericht Stuttgart 28 April 2022, ‘Urteil der 30. Zivilkammer zum Lkw-Kartell’.