A €6 Million Fine for a Badge and a Workshop
In June 2024 Italy’s competition authority fined a carmaker €6 million — for two things. One was the badge. The other was the workshop: a network that was not being supplied properly with spare parts, or given adequate technical training.
The authority, AGCM, found that DR Automobiles had indicated Italy — from at least December 2021, across several channels — as the origin and place of actual production of the cars it sells under the DR and EVO brands. The cars are built in China; at the Macchia d’Isernia plant the company carried out what the authority called marginal finishing and completion work.
The second finding is the one a workshop feels. AGCM found that DR Automobiles and its parts subsidiary, DR Service & Parts, had not guaranteed an adequate supply of spare parts, or proper after-sales service, through the dealer and workshop network — which had also not been given suitable technical training. In the authority’s words, that can hinder a consumer’s right to have the car repaired.
In January 2026 the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio rejected the appeal and held the fine legitimate. On the production question the court observed that at Macchia d’Isernia only minimal finishing was carried out, on vehicles that were already complete and running.
Five months later, on the workshop side, the picture had not changed. ADIRA — the Italian association of independent aftermarket distributors, founded in 2004 and a member of FIGIEFA — mapped technical-information access across the Chinese brands sold in Italy. Two brands have no technical portal at all: Dongfeng, which has only recently entered the market, and DR Automobiles Group, which has been selling in Italy for years and has around a hundred thousand vehicles on Italian roads.
ADIRA says it reported the DR case to Italy’s Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. DR’s own customer FAQ states that DR parts are available only through its repairer network, that only those centres can access the system used to order from its parts warehouse, and that prices, availability and lead times are only visible there.
Around a hundred thousand cars on the road, and no technical portal for the people who repair them. That is the part of this story that reaches past the badge — and past Italy.
New issue of Deep Drive China: what a workshop in Europe can actually access on a Chinese-brand car — brand by brand, portal by portal, price by price. If you run a workshop, supply parts or advise a dealer group: which brand on your ramp would you struggle to repair tomorrow?
Related: China-made parts index · BAIC compatible parts
Sources: AGCM case PS12638, 20 June 2024 · Reuters, 20 June 2024 · ANSA, 26 January 2026 · ADIRA, “Case auto cinesi: accesso e costi delle informazioni tecniche”, June 2026 · DR Automobiles customer FAQ, 2026.
