If you have ever worked at a large American multinational company you have received training on anti-trust. You are told not to collaborate with key competitors and not to share information such as pricing, components or other sensitive information. This is beyond simply from the security aspect. U.S. anti-trust enforcement is well-known, and training to prevent violations is a key part of every corporate anti-trust compliance training program.
In other cultures and other parts of the world, however, there is not such a strong prohibition against competitors’ collaboration. In fact, in the auto industries in Germany this collaboration drew the name of “frenemies” for automakers that competed while collaborating. Reports, however, indicate such collaboration is now under regulatory scrutiny. Making the allegations even more damning is that they are centered around the emissions-testing scandal which engulfed Volkswagen and may now overtake BMW and Daimler as well.
