Main news from Brussels this week
date: 28/09/2017
Commission fines Scania €880 million for participating in trucks cartel
The European Commission has found that Scania broke EU antitrust rules and imposed a fine of €880 million on the company. The Commission found that Scania colluded with five other truck manufacturers on pricing and on passing to consumers the costs of new technologies required to meet stricter emissions rules. In July 2016, the Commission reached a settlement decision concerning the trucks cartel with MAN, DAF, Daimler, Iveco and Volvo/Renault. Unlike the other five participants in cartel, Scania decided not to settle the case with the Commission. As a result, the Commission's investigation against Scania was carried out under the standard cartel procedure. It revealed that as a producer of heavy trucks Scania had engaged in a cartel relating to: i) coordinating prices at "gross list" level for medium and heavy trucks in the European Economic Area, ii) the timing for the introduction of emission technologies for medium and heavy trucks to comply with European emissions standards, iii) the passing on to customers of the costs for the emissions technologies required to comply with the European emissions standards. The infringement covered the entire European Economic Area and lasted 14 years.
EU digital summit
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is in Tallinn, Estonia since yesterday (28 September) for the informal EU digital summit. He participated in the informal dinner of Heads of State or Government yesterday evening where discussions concentrated on the future of the EU. Today, the discussions are focussing on digital economy and society. Leaders debated the Commission's recent proposals for strengthening the EU's cybersecurity and setting out measures towards a fair taxation of the digital economy.
The closing press conference (scheduled to start 16.15 BST) can be followed here.
Commission steps up efforts to tackle illegal content online
On 28 September, the Commission presented guidelines and principles for online platforms to step up proactive prevention, detection and removal of illegal content inciting hatred, violence and terrorism online. The new guidance urges online platforms to further boost their efforts to prevent the spread of illegal content. Given their increasingly important role in providing access to information, the Commission expects online platforms to take swift action over the coming months, in particular in the area of terrorism and illegal hate speech.
Next steps under the European agenda on migration
On 27 September, the Commission reviewed progress on the 2015 European agenda on migration and set out the next steps to put in place the missing elements of a stronger, fairer and more effective EU migration and asylum policy. The Commission presented a series of new initiatives in key areas: a resettlement scheme for at least 50,000 refugees, pilot projects for legal migration which the Commission can help finance and coordinate and measures to make the EU's return policy more effective. The Commission also called on member states to make progress more urgently on the reform of the common European asylum system and further efforts to work with countries of origin and transit of migration, in particular by providing additional contributions to the EU Trust Fund for Africa.
All this week's key European Commission announcements can be found here