GERMAN luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz has been found guilty of manipulating prices for after-sales services in China, Xinhua reported, quoting regulators.

    The report made no mention of possible penalties, but China’s 2008 anti-monopoly law allows the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) to impose fines of up to 10 percent of a company’s China revenues for the previous year.

    An array of industries, from milk powder makers to electronics firms, have been coming under the spotlight in recent years as China intensifies its efforts to bring companies into compliance with the 2008 legislation.

    The auto industry has been under particular scrutiny, with a wave of investigations prompting carmakers to slash prices on spare parts in recent weeks.

    The Jiangsu Province price bureau, which launched an investigation last month, found evidence of anti-competitive practices after raiding Mercedes-Benz dealerships in the eastern coastal province and an office in neighboring Shanghai, Xinhua said Sunday.

    A Daimler spokesman repeated a statement, first made by Mercedes-Benz on Aug. 5, that it was assisting the authorities with their investigation, adding that it was unable to comment further as it was still an on-going matter.

    “It is a typical case of a vertical monopoly in which the carmaker uses its leading position to control the prices of its spare parts, repair and maintenance services in downstream markets,” Zhou Gao, chief of the anti-trust investigation at the Jiangsu bureau, told Xinhua.

    (SD-Agencies)