Blackburn van dealer 'breached law'

8:53am Friday 29th June 2012 in Business

A COMMERCIAL van and truck business in Blackburn is alleged to have breached competition law with other dealers.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has alleged Mercedes-Benz and five dealers, including Ciceley, in Blackburn, infringed competition laws.

The other dealers named by the OFT are Enza, Northside, Road Range and H&L, which is now in administration.

It is alleged three of the infringements concern vans and two concern trucks.

The five separate alleged infringements took place at different periods between March 2007 and January 2010. Each alleged infringement involved two or three dealers.

The regulator's provisional finding is that Mercedes-Benz was also involved in two of the alleged infringements.

It said the precise content of the arrangements differed among the five alleged infringements but all contain ‘some element of market sharing, price co-ordination and/or exchange of commercially sensitive information.’ The statement said evidence also suggested, in respect of two of the alleged infringements, Mercedes-Benz helped to facilitate or consolidate the arrangements amongst the dealers.

Ali Nikpay, OFT senior director of cartels, said: “Based on the evidence before us, we have reason to believe that these dealers co-operated to limit competition in their areas.

“These are the OFT’s provisional findings only. All parties will now have a full opportunity to respond to our statement before we decide whether competition law has in fact been infringed."

Ciceley Commercials Ltd was formed in May 1972 and operated from Ciceley Lane, Blackburn. It was appointed as a sole Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicle franchise for Lancashire in 1975. No one at Ciceley Commercials was said to be available to comment.

Comments (4)

11:01am Fri 29 Jun 12

Mikeee47 says...

some of the most boring news i ever read
some of the most boring news i ever read Mikeee47

1:08pm Fri 29 Jun 12

mavrick says...

Why has it taken the OFT so long to realise that these companies have operated a cartel system for donkey's years? The common saying is they all P in the same pot. Why do you think the price of vans are so high? why is it that service parts for the same engine units vary so much? I had a car that shared the same engine model as another brand, yet the cost of parts for the engine in my car were significantly dearer than the other car. Why is that. The whole car/van service and repair centres need a to explain how their charges are arrived at. I am sure they say they charge manufacturers list prices, I have always found these prices to be somewhat flexible, its a bit like jacking the price up to the insurance companies, then finding the job can be done cheaper. This type of rip off has been allowed to go unheeded for far too long the OFT should be cracking down on these garages, I would start at the main agents for the dealerships. I have always found that the main agent is usually the most expensive and worst service you can get, I wonder if it is time these so called protection bodies were revisited as they appear to be very ineffective.
Why has it taken the OFT so long to realise that these companies have operated a cartel system for donkey's years? The common saying is they all P in the same pot. Why do you think the price of vans are so high? why is it that service parts for the same engine units vary so much? I had a car that shared the same engine model as another brand, yet the cost of parts for the engine in my car were significantly dearer than the other car. Why is that. The whole car/van service and repair centres need a to explain how their charges are arrived at. I am sure they say they charge manufacturers list prices, I have always found these prices to be somewhat flexible, its a bit like jacking the price up to the insurance companies, then finding the job can be done cheaper. This type of rip off has been allowed to go unheeded for far too long the OFT should be cracking down on these garages, I would start at the main agents for the dealerships. I have always found that the main agent is usually the most expensive and worst service you can get, I wonder if it is time these so called protection bodies were revisited as they appear to be very ineffective. mavrick

11:00pm Sat 30 Jun 12

sen c ble says...

Mikeee47 wrote:
some of the most boring news i ever read
Why would that be Mikeee47, boring!

If you ever had been on the receiving end of CCL charges, you'd soon have realised that price fixing and co-ordination was well rooted within the Merc group. Servicing of HGV's and Ministry of Transport testing of vehicles, highly inflated charges and the operator unable to obtain services elsewhere, that is the position we've been tied in.
It's taken Office of Fair Trading far too long to realise an 'agreement' was in practice as my experiances dates back 18 years!!!
[quote][p][bold]Mikeee47[/bold] wrote: some of the most boring news i ever read[/p][/quote]Why would that be Mikeee47, boring! If you ever had been on the receiving end of CCL charges, you'd soon have realised that price fixing and co-ordination was well rooted within the Merc group. Servicing of HGV's and Ministry of Transport testing of vehicles, highly inflated charges and the operator unable to obtain services elsewhere, that is the position we've been tied in. It's taken Office of Fair Trading far too long to realise an 'agreement' was in practice as my experiances dates back 18 years!!! sen c ble

1:34am Mon 2 Jul 12

joannebalmersmith says...

Mikeee47 wrote:
some of the most boring news i ever read
Whether its a workshop with a glass fronted show room or a back street garage, all garages work with the same downtime/repair software given by each manufacturer - hence all repair times and costs should be relative across the board. Find someone you trust..... big or small outfit..... pros and cons to each...?
[quote][p][bold]Mikeee47[/bold] wrote: some of the most boring news i ever read[/p][/quote]Whether its a workshop with a glass fronted show room or a back street garage, all garages work with the same downtime/repair software given by each manufacturer - hence all repair times and costs should be relative across the board. Find someone you trust..... big or small outfit..... pros and cons to each...? joannebalmersmith

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