New | China takes aim again at luxury car makers

The mainland is taking aim again at foreign luxury car makers such as Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz by allowing unauthorised dealers to sell imported cars - so-called parallel imports - in a move to rein in high-end car prices.

Publicly, Beijing says a pilot scheme, which starts in Shanghai's free-trade zone next week, will promote competition and give consumers more choice, but people close to policymakers say it is the latest in a series of measures aimed at bringing down prices that are far higher in China than elsewhere.

For the luxury car marques, the move comes on top of weakening sales growth in the world's biggest market, tensions with dealers, and a recent price-fixing probe.

A lawyer who attended a closed-door seminar last year said officials at the Ministry of Commerce and the National Development and Reform Commission made clear their intention was to cut the price of high-end imported cars.

"Legalising parallel imports is part of a broad anti-monopoly campaign by the government to improve market order and bring down prices of imported cars," he said.

The China Automotive Technology and Research Centre, a government-affiliated think tank, lobbied Beijing a year ago to legalise parallel imports "to break monopoly and promote competition".

Sales of premium cars rose by more than 20 per cent last year to about 1.6 million vehicles, according to consultancy Automotive Foresight (Shanghai), but still account for less than 10 per cent of car sales in the country.