The German Regional Court grants damages to a customer of fire-fighting vehicle manufacturer cartelist (Feuerwehrfahrzeuge)

In its decision of 4 May 2012 the Regional Court of Mannheim (in the following "Regional Court") had to assess whether the claimant could rely its claim on a clause on which the claimant had agreed with the contractor in the context of procurement proceedings and which fixed the amount of cartel damages [1]. The clause, which was part of the claimant’s general terms of contract, entitled the claimant as principal to claim from the contractor 15% of the contract amount in case of damages caused by the contractor’s anti-competitive behavior. The Regional Court concluded that such clause was in any case effective as the cartel in which the defendant had participated had inter alia the purpose to avoid rebates in the amount of up to 30% (which have been granted before the cartel became