Complaints lead to Commission raids on State's Renault distributor

European Commission inspectors conducted raids in late March on the offices of Renault's Irish distributor, searching for evidence that the French carmaker wanted Irish dealers not to sell cars to residents of Britain and Northern Ireland.

Raids were also conducted on Renault's Paris headquarters and several dealerships in the Republic. A Commission spokesman said the raids came after it had received "a wave of complaints" from British consumers who found they were unable to buy Renault cars in the Republic. Under EU law, consumers must be able to buy cars in the member-state of their choice.

A spokesman for Renault in Paris said it was willing to work with the Commission in the antitrust investigation and stated that it "took pains to respect competition law".

Another Commission spokesman said the "floods" of calls from British and Northern Irish consumers complaining about difficulties in buying cars in the Republic related to "all makes".

But it is not known if inquiries are under way into possible contraventions of EU law by the Irish distributors of other makes of car.

Glencullen Ltd, of which Mr Bill Cullen is the principal shareholder, is the Renault distributor in the Republic.

Mr Tony Sutton, the company's communications manager, confirmed yesterday that EU inspectors had come to its offices in late March.

He said he was confident there had been no request from Paris that cars should not be sold to individual consumers resident in Britain and Northern Ireland.

"We regard the visit as a routine investigation in that they have visited other manufacturers across the EU," he said.

Mr Ciaran Ferguson, a salesman with Eric Leonard Motors, Lusk, Co Dublin, which is a Renault dealer, said EU inspectors had visited its offices.

"They left here on very good terms and the evidence they found backed up the fact that we are complying with the regulations." He said a "small percentage" of his company's sales were to Northern Irish and British consumers.

The pre-tax price of cars in Britain and Northern Ireland is the highest in the EU in the case of most types of cars, while the pre-tax price in the Republic is about average for most types.

This fact and sterling's strength have made it very attractive for British and Northern Irish consumers to buy their cars here. Several Renault dealers yesterday said they were frequently contacted by these consumers.

But all said domestic demand was so high there was great difficulty getting enough cars from France for that market alone.

"Our problem is a supply problem," said Mr Jim Peppard, of Camac Cars, in Kilmainham, Dublin. "And we would rather sell to Irish people because we get the service and parts business, so we have exported very few." Other dealers said they had similar problems, and that they had no objection in principle to selling for export.

"I'll take anybody's money," said Mr John Quiltor, of Blanchardstown Renault. Dealers also said they had received no communications urging them to only sell to domestic consumers.

The Commission is investigating whether Renault headquarters wants to dampen the cross-Border trade to protect its market in Northern Ireland and Britain. The Commission has issued warnings to the German auto companies Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and Opel for similar alleged behaviour. The move against Renault may be because the Commission is keen to be seen to be moving against other than just German manufacturers. Mr Sutton said the Commission was trying to get car prices down "and this is something we welcome".

He said there had been instances where dealers had refused to sell cars to people from Britain or Northern Ireland who were trying to buy "six or seven cars". Such was the advantage to buying cars here that British and Northern Ireland dealers were now seeking to buy from dealers here. But he said the EU directive on car sales did not oblige dealers to sell to other dealers.