Equipment

Munich court orders Daimler Truck and MAN to repay cartel-era truck buyers

A Munich court ruled that MAN must reimburse 5% of the net price of heavy-duty trucks bought between 1997 and 2009, and Daimler Truck 3.7%, in a judgment expected to benchmark billions of euros in European truck-cartel claims.

By CDLWire · Published October 23, 2026

Summarized from Transport Topics.

A white MAN heavy-duty truck parked on a street in Tallinn's old town

Image: Photo: Dmitry G, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain) (file photo)

A Munich court has ordered MAN to reimburse buyers 5% of the net price of heavy-duty trucks and 1% of medium-duty trucks purchased between 1997 and 2009, with Daimler Truck owing 3.7% on heavy-duty and 4.2% on medium-duty trucks from the same period, according to Transport Topics on Oct. 21.

The rulings, in cases LG München 37 O 6594/17 and 37 O 2959/18, are expected to serve as a benchmark for billions of euros in follow-on claims. One Munich plaintiff group alone has filed for about 2 billion euros — roughly $2.25 billion. Spokesmen for both manufacturers said they first need to review the written judgments before commenting further.

The claims grow out of the European Commission's truck cartel case: Daimler, Paccar's DAF, Iveco and Volvo settled in 2016 and paid 2.93 billion euros for fixing prices between 1997 and 2011, while Scania contested the case and was fined 880.5 million euros a year later.

The direct impact is on European fleets that bought trucks in the cartel years, but the case numbers matter to any buyer who paid list-linked prices in that era — and the judgment gives claim groups a court-tested percentage to take into settlement talks.