Today’s post reacts to the news that BMW, the famous German auto-manufacturer, has been raided by the European Commission’s (EC) antitrust division as part of an investigation into collusion between the largest German auto-manufacturers. In this post, the focus will be on the details of the investigation, as far as we can know at this very early stage, and then on contextualising that against the larger picture for auto-manufacturers. Ultimately, although operating in opposition to the supposed ideals of the marketplace i.e. private and independent business, the reality of the situation is that in this particular industry collusion is rife, and arguably necessary – depending upon one’s position. The EC raided BMW’s Munich offices last week in the latest development of an investigation into collusion between the largest German auto-manufacturers. The investigation, which began earlier this year, is based upon the allegations that ‘ Volkswagen, Audi, BMW, and Daimler has for year...