Defeat for Mercedes. Motions to bias against the presiding judge rejected.

Published July 17, 2022

Update: The motion for bias filed by Mercedes at the Dortmund Regional Court, Case No. 8 O 4/18 were dismissed.

The Dortmund Regional Court was originally scheduled to pronounce a judgment against truck manufacturer Mercedes in an ongoing truck antitrust case in January 2022, but Mercedes wanted to use any means necessary to torpedo this in order to escape the threat of a conviction.

Mercedes therefore felt compelled to resort to the very last and most drastic means, namely to file a motion for partiality against the presiding judge!

According to our information, this does not only concern one specific case, but all cases in which Mercedes is involved.

This motion of bias has now – unsurprisingly – been rejected by the Regional Court.

Mercedes’ next step is also predictable: They will appeal the decision to the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court. It is foreseeable that the delay in the trial will then come to an end and the Dortmund Regional Court will pronounce its verdict.

A trial is usually delayed by 6-8 months by means of a motion to bias.

The longer it takes for successful truck cartel cases to be reported in the European press, the more cases of truck owners who were simply unaware of the legitimate possibility or, for whatever reason, had no confidence in the process, will become time-barred in the meantime.

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Recent developments

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