Brussels, 15/11/2000 (Agence Europe) - This Wednesday, the European Commission adopted its report on the assessment of regulation No 1475/95 concerning distribution agreement and after sales and sale services for automotive vehicles. Prepared by the services of Commissioner Monti responsible for Competition, this report notes that certain fundamental objectives in the derogation have not been achieved: i) benefits for the consumers. These last do not seem to draw any benefit from the system in place, notably with regards to price, and face difficulties when they want to buy a car in other Member States; ii) independence of distributors from manufacturers. The distributors do not have a sufficiently large margin for manoeuvre, providing them with greater freedom for action in the carrying out of their economic activity and their commercial independence is only protected to a limited extent; ii) development of parallel imports. The present system makes very difficult the sale of automotive vehicles via other networks (notably in supermarkets), which is contrary to the rules of free movement. Other failings concerns equal access for independent garage owners to spare parts and the possibility for the distributors to sell vehicles of several brands.
This factual report is a neutral and objective assessment of the functioning of the regulation cited, when considering as a whole the impact of the system of the differences in prices for automotive vehicles in the different Member States and on the quality of service to the end customers. It presents the reason for having block exemptions, mainly the context in which there are specific rules for the automobile distribution sector; sees to what extent these are applied in practice; assesses the validity of the measures foreseen given the rapid development of the sector since 1995; considers the real advantages of the system for consumers concerning the purchase of vehicles, the sales and after-sales services; and makes an assessment of the new means of distribution on the basis of Regulation 1475/95.
The Commission will use the conclusions of this report as a base so that, before the end of the year 2001, it may present proposals relating to the new regime that will replace the current system when it expires on 30 September 2002. These proposals will also take into account the observations made by interested parties (consumer associations, automobile manufacturers, etc.) who have until 16 January 2001 to put their observations to the Commission. The Commission will then take a decision on the new framework in the first half of the year 2002 at the latest. It will not necessarily be a matter of purely and simply abolishing the exemption to the ban on agreements but rather the setting in place of more stringent conditions or even the establishment of another system that recognises certain particularities of the automobile sector compared to other consumer goods, mainly as regards the requirements of after sales services. The content of the report is available on the internet at the following address: http: //europa.eu.int/comm/competition/car_sector