Truck manufacturers have avoided federal antitrust law violations. They agreed to ignore their deal with California on emission rules and promised never to sign a similar agreement again.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has closed its antitrust investigation into the Clean Truck Partnership. The agreement involved top truck manufacturers and their trade group, the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association (EMA). They signed the deal with the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
Signed in 2023, the Clean Truck Partnership requires manufacturers to follow California’s truck emission standards. These include the Omnibus Low NOx rule, Advanced Clean Fleets and Advanced Clean Trucks. A key part of the agreement binds truck makers to these rules, even if California loses the authority to enforce them.
On his first day back in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at “unleashing American energy.” This order includes a directive to remove government-imposed market distortions favoring electric vehicles over other technologies.
In June, Trump signed resolutions that killed California’s vehicle emission rules. That should have triggered the Clean Truck Partnership.
The FTC launched an investigation into the partnership. The agency noted that Daimler Truck North America, International, Paccar and Volvo control 99% of the heavy-duty truck market.
“What does all of this have to do with the antitrust laws? The Clean Truck Partnership is an example of companies agreeing to eliminate competition and reduce output under the guise of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) objectives,” FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in a statement. “Some of these ESG-driven business decisions may have been well-intentioned, although I doubt it.”
During the investigation, the FTC looked into three antitrust issues with the Clean Truck Partnership:
- Collusion – An OEM could enforce the diesel truck sales restrictions against competing OEMs, limiting free market participation.
- “Dead Hand Provision” – OEMs pledged to follow CARB’s emission rules regardless of authority, creating a private, backdoor output-restriction agreement.
- Lack of political accountability – California voters have no way of revising the agreement by voicing disapproval at the ballot box.
On Aug. 10, the four truck OEMs signed letters of commitment to the FTC. Those commitments include:
- Treating the Clean Truck Partnership as unenforceable
- Never attempting to enforce the agreement on themselves or each other
- Competing independently in the truck market
- Not entering into another agreement with state governments that fixes output or emission or includes a “Dead Hand Provision”
The EMA agreed to never pursue such agreements on behalf of its members.
Satisfied with the commitments, the FTC closed its antitrust investigation.
However, the agency vowed to intervene if private companies and states collaborate in ways that reduce competition without clear legal authority.
“We are confident that today’s outcome ensures the continued free functioning of competition, including by ensuring that consumers are not harmed by California’s attempts to co-opt private businesses to enforce preempted regulations in large swaths of the nation,” the FTC said in its closing statement.
These commitments mark another setback for California and the Clean Truck Partnership. Just one day later, the OEMs filed a federal lawsuit against CARB and Gov. Gavin Newsom. They claim the agreement is an illegal “regulatory mechanism.”
In July, the Western States Trucking Association filed a state petition challenging the Clean Truck Partnership. The association calls the agreement an “underground regulation.”
Last November, the state of Nebraska filed a lawsuit against the OEMs and the EMA. That lawsuit claims the Clean Truck Partnership artificially increases the price of diesel trucks in states outside of California. On the same day the OEMs filed their federal lawsuit against California, Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers announced the dismissal of his case.
“Our economy depends on diesel-powered semi-trucks, the companies that provide them, and the truckers that drive them,” Hilgers said in a statement. “That industry is critical to keeping costs low for consumers and to supplying rural America. That industry has been under assault by California, and today’s victory ensures that the availability and costs of those trucks will be dictated by market forces, not unelected bureaucrats in another state.” LL
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