Kildare man guilty of fixing car prices
A Co Kildare company director was given a nine months suspended prison sentence and fined a total of €100,000 for fixing car prices as a member of a cartel by a judge at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin today.
Mr Justice Liam McKechnie warned that custodial prison sentences would be handed down in future for such offences.
"The first generation of carteliers have escaped prison sentences. I can say that the second will not," he said.
Patrick Duffy (aged 52) is a co-director of Duffy Motors Limited which trades as PG Duffy and Sons at Naas Road, Newbridge, Co Kildare. Mr Duffy and the company pleaded guilty last January to entering into and implementing agreements with other Leinster car dealers to fix prices of Citroen vehicles.
Mr Duffy, who lives across the road from his business premises, pleaded guilty to two counts of, as a director of a company, authorising it to enter into and to implement an agreement with other undertakings to prevent, restrict and distort competition by directly or indirectly fixing prices of Citroen cars, within the province of Leinster on dates between June 24, 1997 and June 18, 2002, contrary to section four of the 1991 Act and section two of the 1996 Act.
He also pleaded guilty to two similar charges on behalf of the company.
Mr Justice McKechnie sentenced Duffy to nine months imprisonment suspended for five years for the two offences to which he pleaded guilty and also fined him a total of €50,000. The judge also fined the company a total of €50,000 for its offences.
Last January Mr Thomas Fitzpatrick, an officer with the Competition Authority, told Denis Vaughan Buckley SC, prosecuting, that Mr Duffy was a member of the Citroen Dealers' Association (CDA) which had its first meeting in April 1995 and operated in the Leinster region until 2004.
Members of the CDA agreed to implement a scheme in which prices were set by the organisation in relation to maximum discounts from the recommended retail price, delivery charges, accessory prices, trade in values and export prices.
These agreed minimum prices were printed up and circulated to members by the secretary of the CDA. Members were urged to print up their own lists for internal use.
A "pocket card" containing the CDA's agreed prices was developed which was half the size of an A4 sheet of paper and was laminated. It became popular because it easily fitted into a jacket pocket.
The CDA set monetary penalties for breaches of the agreement and hired "secret shoppers" to go into dealerships and check that members were sticking to the agreement.
Fines set by the CDA ranged from £500 (€534.56) to £1,270 (€1,358) but Mr Fitzpatrick was unable to say if anyone had ever paid such a fine. Two market research companies were employed by the CDA to seek quotes from members and report back.
Mr Justice McKechnie heard that two members of the CDA were given qualified immunity by the Director of Public Prosecutions and would have given evidence of what happened at CDA meetings had this case gone to trial.
Mr Duffy was interviewed by Competition Authority officers on March 3, 2004 and confirmed that he was a member of the CDA and had served as its treasurer from 2000 to 2003.
He had only ever missed a few meetings and had been responsible, as treasurer, for paying the fees of the 'secret shoppers' employed to monitor adherence to the agreement.
The court heard that Duffy Motors Ltd had a turnover of nearly €9.4m in 2006 and nearly €9.9m in 2007 but was experiencing difficulty in the current economic climate. Sales had decreased by 14% in 2008. It employs 22 full-time staff.
Mr Justice McKechnie heard that two other members of the CDA had been prosecuted in the Circuit Criminal Courts in Dundalk and Trim for entering into agreements to fix prices. They received three-month suspended jail terms and fines of €12,000 and €20,000.
This case is the second to be dealt with by the Central Criminal Court. A previous case was dealt with in Cork and concerned Ford cars.
Under the Competition Act of 2002 all such cases are now heard at the Central Criminal Court and the maximum penalties are five years' imprisonment and or a maximum fine of €4m.
