Picture: ARENA2036

The German Federal Cartel Office has approved cooperation between car manufacturers, wiring harness producers and component, machine and software suppliers to develop standards for the automation of wiring harnesses.

This decision of 5 September 2023 was preceded by a lengthy coordination process, at the end of which it was possible to convincingly demonstrate to the Office that the antitrust requirements for standardization projects were met.

This paves the way for cooperation within the newly launched Wire Harness Standardization Initiative (SILS). Standardization impulses are being developed and prepared here, which will be incorporated into the standardization work of the DIN working group (NA 052-00-32-51 AK) for the standard "DIN 72036: Road vehicles - Automation of wire harness production". This will be based on the existing preliminary work, in particular the draft of DIN 72036, which can now be published by the DIN working group(https://www.din.de/de/mitwirken/normenausschuesse/naautomobil/entwuerfe/wdc-beuth:din21:346349423).

With the clarifications on standardization, the Bundeskartellamt has created legal certainty for the coexistence of a DIN working group and a parallel cooperation that works on the content of the DIN working group. In doing so, the Office has provided guidance on the conditions under which such cooperation can pursue standardization or R&D activities that may be exempted under the R&D Block Exemption Regulation.

With the SILS, a cooperation is now being set up that is aimed exclusively at standardization and input for standardization. The antitrust requirements for a non-discriminatory, transparent and open process are fulfilled. Any R&D activities will be separated from this in accordance with the instructions of the Federal Cartel Office. The previous " Wire HarnessInnovation Initiative" (IILS) will be terminated with the launch of the SILS.

The SILS is to be accompanied by experienced experts from the law firm Hogan Lovells, who have already represented ARENA2036 before the Federal Cartel Office for this restructuring.

The exemplary release of this cooperation opens up an important transfer channel for ARENA2036: The members now have legally secure opportunities to support the various technology developments within ARENA2036 through standardization. This will particularly benefit technological innovations that are geared towards interoperability: a decisive step for the future of industrial value creation.