Mercedes not discrimating against independent dealerships
So says Mercedes, via Reuters:
Daimler’s luxury brand Mercedes on Sunday said it had no knowledge of alleged complaints by Chinese car dealers, reported in a magazine, that Mercedes was discriminating against independent car dealers in China.The Wirtschaftswoche business weekly in prereleased abstracts of a story due to appear on Jan. 18 said Chinese car dealer association CADA was raising the complaints and pressing for the temporary withdrawal of import licences for Mercedes.
“We have no information regarding such irregularities,” said a Daimler spokesman.
“Up to now we have not been contacted by CADA or anybody from the dealers’ side,” he added.
Wirtschaftswoche said the Chinese association was preparing complaints to the National Development and Reform Commission and trade authorities with view to prohibiting further expansion of Mercedes dealer networks and withdrawing the import licence.
China is one of Mercedes’ most important overseas markets.
In 2009, it sold 70,100 cars there, 65 percent more than in the year before.
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china is one of car makers most important markets…audi,bwm,benz,etc…
It is probably THE most important car market.
It is important but they still sell way more in Europe than they do China. Protecting the image of their brand is more important to them than anything. If they feel that some dealerships could threaten their image they might want to avoid them. Just weird that they don’t just say that and come out denying any problems. They could have spun it much better.
I’d also be interested in knowing how they allegedly discriminated against these dealers.