[usr1106]

OK, so all traditional car manufacturers are there. Tesla is probably not represented and at all or only with a very minimal weight through some association. No surprise they don't accept Tesla's aggressive and misleading marketing, which did not exist in Germany before and is not in compliance with accepted legal practice.

On the other hand there are so many competing companies represented there, that similar practices of any single traditional manufacturer would not be accepted either. So I don't see why people reject the characterization of self-regulation.

Of course if most of the car manufacturers agree to do something illegal the self-regulation will fail. This has happened in the car manufacturing supply-chain, fines have been imposed and more investigations are on the way IIRC. That is governed by different legislation.

Probably also in the emission frauds there have been at least been "gentlemen" agreements. It's not very convincing that the engineers of the competitors did not understand how some manufacturers achieved their emission values.

But also cases related to consumer marketing which should be covered by the self-regulation remain unsatisfactory. It's well known that all manufacturers advertise misleading and unrealistic mileage values that no driver can achieve in real life. So if the majority of the businesses agrees to cheat customers self-regulation just fails. They will just stop newcomers who try to be disruptive in their cheating.

In the end every decision could be brought to court. As a matter of fact in the case of self-regulation it would not have even been Tesla who would have needed to appeal a decision. There was no decision, just a request to comply with legislation. They could have just waited whether Wettbewerbszentrale goes to court. That they decided to comply without any court decision tells a lot.