Volkswagen Group parts supplier Prevent Group on Monday filed a lawsuit alleging the German automaker used anticompetitive tactics to stop larger suppliers like the company from acquiring smaller rivals in the United States.
In the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in Detroit, the auto parts supplier said Volkswagen extracted written agreements from suppliers not to sell themselves to Prevent Group.
Volkswagen did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Prevent, which is seeking damages in excess of $750 million, said that after the VW’s diesel emissions violations surfaced in 2015, the automaker used its market power to squeeze smaller suppliers and stop any acquisitions to cut costs.
Volkswagen’s lower-tier suppliers had no choice but to suffer bankruptcy or comply with Volkswagen’s “unfair terms and prices,” Prevent said in a statement.
In 2016, Volkswagen and two of its suppliers, a part of Prevent, resolved a contract dispute that had hit output at more than half of the automaker’s German plants and threatened to undermine its recovery from the diesel emissions scandal.