Leonid Bershidsky, Columnist

Germany's Auto Industry Is Built on Collusion

Despite the diesel uproar, cartels have long been an essential part of the German way of doing business.

July 31, 2017 at 4:53 PM UTC

Leonid Bershidsky, formerly Bloomberg Opinion’s Europe columnist, is a member of the Bloomberg News Automation Team. He recently published Russian translations of George Orwell’s “1984” and Franz Kafka’s “The Trial.”

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The latest attempt to cut into Chancellor Angela Merkel's formidable electoral lead is unwisely betting that Germans will forget a significant chunk of German history.

The nation's three big carmakers -- Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW -- are accused of colluding on dozens of technology-related matters. They allegedly agreed to make urea tanks too small for effective purification of diesel exhaust, among other moves that are helping to create a national furor.