Celebrating the start of production of the Mercedes-Benz long-wheelbase C-class at Beijing Benz Automotive this past July. Extremely high import taxes force local manufacturing.
Reports coming out of China from an official state news agency say the government in Jiangsu Province found Mercedes-Benz guilty of antitrust pricing violations, with price gouging the norm.
This is the latest government crackdown in China where in recent months there have been a series of Communist party sanctioned investigations into the price gouging on the sales of automobiles and replacement parts, encompassing BMW, Audi, and most recently General Motors.
Other global companies are also under scrutiny, not just automakers.
In response to anti-monopoly investigations by the National Development and Reform Commission, Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, said it was cutting parts prices by an average of 15%. Daimler cooperated with the investigation. GM’s is ongoing.
Photo on page one: From right to left: Frank Deiss, President and CEO of BBAC, Hubertus Troska, member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG responsible for China, Xu Heyi, Chairman of BAIC Group, Chen Hongliang, Senior Executive Vice President of BBAC.
