Daimler truck unit Executive arrested in U.K. antitrust probe

An executive at Daimler AG’s U.K. truck unit was arrested by police as part of a cartel probe by British antitrust regulators.

Ian Jones, the head of the U.K. Mercedes-Benz truck division, was detained by police earlier this week, Mercedes spokesman Simon Wood said in a telephone interview.

The Office of Fair Trading, which investigates and prosecutes antitrust violations, is probing Mercedes, Volvo AB and at least three other truck makers.

The probe is the biggest since the collapse in May of the OFT’s case against four current and former British Airways Plc executives accused of colluding with Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. on fuel surcharges. The OFT in February began a separate investigation into the auto industry in Britain.

“At this time we have no knowledge of wrongdoing,” Wood said in an e-mailed statement. “As always the presumption of innocence applies to all people involved. Due to the ongoing legal process the company is unable to comment further.”

The company yesterday said the OFT had visited its offices in Tongwell, England, as part of the investigation.

Calls to Jones’s office were referred to Wood, who declined to provide Jones’s contact details. Jonathan Marciano, a spokesman for the OFT in London, declined to comment.

The arrest was reported on the Financial Times’s website yesterday.