Update | Mercedes, BMW face China price-fixing probe as automaker investigation spreads

Mainland authorities could slap fines on carmakers Audi and Chrysler as the latest anti-monopoly crackdown widens to Mercedes-Benz and forces foreign manufacturers to cut prices.

Nine antitrust officers from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) raided the Shanghai office of German premium carmaker Mercedes-Benz on Monday morning, according to the English-language Twitter account of Communist Party mouthpiece the . The officers met Mercedes-Benz executives and checked staff computers, the said.

"We confirm that we are assisting the authorities in their investigation," Senol Bayrak, China spokesman for Daimler, which owns Mercedes-Benz, told the . "We are unable to comment further on what is an ongoing matter."

The NDRC confirmed that German luxury brand Audi and American carmaker Chrysler had indulged in monopoly practices by together setting vehicle maintenance and spare parts prices, the official China News Service said yesterday.

The two manufacturers could face fines and the authorities were also collecting evidence on possible monopoly practices by German carmaker BMW, the report said.

Meanwhile, the NDRC said on Wednesday that the government had completed investigations into 12 Japanese car-parts makers and would hand out punishments according to the law, Reuters reported.

Only a day before the raid, Daimler said it would cut prices of spare parts for Mercedes-Benz models on the mainland by an average 15 per cent from next month.