The much-vaunted code of conduct to which the Commission
encouraged the two sides of the industry to agree after removing the
dealer protection measures from the 2010 block exemption, has finally
been knocked on the head by ACEA. Auto Retail Network reports the
Association’s Legal Director Marc Greven, stating at CECRA’s
European Car Dealer Conference in Brussels in late September that the
organisation did not plan to agree to a code.
That is not to say that there will never be a code, just
that ACEA does not consider that its job includes agreeing one. Mr
Greven said it was a contractual matter between manufacturers and
their dealers. But if that is the case, what was the draft code
promulgated by ACEA JAMA supposed to be for? CECRA never liked that
much, and of course the manufacturers never liked the dealers’
proposals either. Has the ACEA/JAMA code also been dropped?
The Commission announced last December that if the two
sides did not agree, it would impose a solution, and it set the end
of this year as a deadline – coinciding with the conclusion of work
on the CARS 2020 Project (see Motor Law, volume 13 number 11 and this posting).
That looked encouraging, for those who like the idea of a code, but
it appears that it failed to take into account that the Commission
was up for a replacement in the interim, and as we are seeing now new
Commissioners are being appointed as the old ones make their exits.
Commissioner Almumia’s parting speech is reported elsewhere in this
issue. So along the line, the Commission’s commitment went from a
statement of intent to see this through, to reserving the right to
introduce legislation on unfair trading practices. Since when,
incidentally, did the Commission have to reserve the right to do
something within its powers?
