Szeged hopes for late compensation

The Finance Committee of the Szeged City Council has unanimously decided to apply for compensation for the special vehicles. The background to this is a decision by the EU Commission, which fined several leading truck manufacturers a total of 2.9 billion euros. The companies Daimler, MAN, DAF, Iveco and Volvo/Renault had operated a truck cartel in Europe from 1997 to 2011. They coordinated their list prices for 14 years and postponed the introduction of emission-reducing technologies, which placed a financial burden on customers.

The limitation period of five years for lawsuits in Hungarian courts has already expired. The city of Szeged only learnt of the ECJ’s decision after this period had expired and can therefore no longer assert the claim before a Hungarian court. In this context, a New York law firm has approached the city with an offer to cover the costs of the compensation proceedings if the proceeds are shared. If the claim is successful, the city will receive around 90 million forints (220,000 euros) and the law firm the equivalent of just under 120,000 euros. Should the proceedings fail in favour of the plaintiff, Szeged would not have to bear any costs.