The Foundation believes that people deserve the best possible service. For that reason the Foundation has teamed up with legal partners in other countries. Through a legal partner in your country you will be able to join the claim. After registering with the legal partner, you will be invited to our Claim Platform. The Claim Platform will facilitate the paperwork in a modern and efficient method.

The Claim Platform is the online environment in which the Foundation registers the trucks. Each truck and company has a lot of information and paperwork. The Claim Platform guides all the parties through the necessary steps in order to participate in the claim. The Claim Platform will give trucking companies their own account from which the company can monitor the progress per truck. The Claim Platform is unique and custom built for the Foundation.

This basically depends on the Truck Manufacturers. The Foundation is looking for compensation by exploring two options. If the Truck Manufacturers are willing to work with the Foundation towards a fair and reasonable solution for all involved parties by means of reaching a collective settlement the Foundation provides you with compensation from a settlement. This would be sooner than later as this scenario would offer all the involved parties, including the Truck Manufacturers, the possibility for closure. If the Truck Manufacturers would not be willing to settle with the Foundation, the Foundation will have to go to court to force the Truck Manufacturers to compensate the damages that trucking companies have suffered. Court proceedings could take a long time.

The Foundation is currently calculating the general level of “overcharge” in the market as a result of the cartel. The Foundation will consequently use this calculation model to quantify the individual damages of affected companies from all European jurisdictions. The overcharge is the extra amount that was charged by the Truck Manufacturers during the time in which the Cartel was active. The overcharge will be a realistic indication of the expected compensation. The Foundation will provide a tool in the future in which you can calculate the estimated overcharge.

The Foundation has selected an economic expert that will be calculating the overcharge for all the participants. The calculation process inter alia includes the following steps:

• 1. Conducting a theoretical analyses: i.e. relevant literature to validate the chosen approach for damage calculation;
• 2. Assessing the affected volume of commerce: i.e. the price paid for medium and heavy trucks during the cartel period;
• 3. Calculating the overcharge: development of a model to estimate the general level of “overcharge” amount by which the truck market is overcharged as a result of the truck cartel;
• 4. Quantifying cartel damages on an individual and a group level: on the basis of the calculated overcharge and the purchase values of the trucks it is possible to calculate individual damage amounts;
• 5. Calculating interest: affected companies are entitled to interest accrued on the overcharge as from the date of purchase to the date of compensation;
• 6. Analyzing pass-on defenses of the overcharge: the Foundation intends to rebut the defendant’s argument that any loss was passed on down the supply chain by obtaining relevant information from the injured parties. This information could be used to show that there was no direct causal link between the overcharge and the price charged to the participant’s customers, if any.

As part of data collection process the Foundation has developed a Claim Platform to which the Foundation, its local partners and its participants will have access to. The Claim Platform offers an efficient way of big data collection. Subsequently the requested information will be uploaded and stored at the Claim Platform. The registration and upload process will be managed by the local partners of the Foundation in the applicable jurisdictions.