Brussels, 16/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) has published its response sent to the European Commission concerning the draft regulation on car distribution, whereas the Commission was expected to conclude the consultation period with candidate countries and interested parties, this month. The Commission presented the draft last February, with the final version of the Regulation expected to be adopted before the summer. New rules will officially replace the current legislation as from 1 October (see EUROPE 4-5 February page 9 and 6 February page 9). ACEA's response to the draft was not a glowing endorsement. It considers that the Commission draft takes the reform too far and: a) The proposal would lead to a rapid and unmanageable concentration of distribution networks in certain zones to the detriment of other areas, which would lead to less competition, the likelihood of price rises and job losses; b) Consumers will not benefit from a better service nor more competitive prices; c) The danger of convergence could lead to duty free prices on cars rising in Member States in order to compensate for a high taxation level, whereas particularly low duty costs were proposed before; d) Multi-branding will reduce rather that encourage competition between brands, given that the distributor will be tempted to choose the makes of car that provide the highest profits.
ACEA is therefore of the opinion that several modifications have to be made to the draft: a) Elimination of the location clauses for distributors and authorise repairers; b) permit quantitative selection of authorised repairers; c) Ensure distributors who with to delegate repair and maintenance work to remain responsible for both customers and suppliers; c) Allow agreements between suppliers and multibrand distributors on separate brand representations; d) Exclude medium and heavy commercial vehicles form the scope of the Regulation, as these are not consumer but investment goods, used for production purposes; e) remove unnecessary rules regarding termination of agreements; f) eliminate inconsistent withdrawal clauses.