Present at a meeting of the European trade federation CECRA this week, senior automotive sector official of the EC's Competition Directorate Paolo Cesarini declined to pronounce on any of the complaints so far submitted to the EC on dealer contracts.

The Competition Directorate has reportedly received some 1,200 complaints concerning dealer contract terms from dealers or dealer associations. Unnamed sources suggest that one of the earliest such complaints to be submitted to the EC's DG1V last year, on behalf of the German BMW dealer association, is unlikely to be dealt with conclusively for some weeks, or even months, to come.