EU antitrust regulators charged BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen on April 5 for hindering competition on emission cleaning technology between 2006 to 2014.

The European Commission said it had sent statements of objections setting out the charges to the companies, nearly two years after carrying out dawn raids at the their premises.

“BMW, Daimler and VW participated in a collusive scheme, in breach of EU competition rules, to limit the development and roll-out of emission cleaning technology for new diesel and petrol passenger cars sold in the European Economic Area,” the EU competition enforcer said.