Mr. Holger Rothbauer, Tübingen
Regarding items 3 and 4 of the agenda: »The actions of the members of the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board are not to be ratified.
Reason: Since July 28, 2005, the Group has flooded shareholder and author Jürgen Grässlin with a large number of court and out-of-court disputes, dealing solely with critical statements by Mr. Grässlin concerning the retirement of former Board of Management Chairman Jürgen Schrempp and with evidence given by the current Board of Management Chairman Dr. Dieter Zetsche in the so-called »Schweinle lawsuit« and on the grey-market transactions of the Mercedes Car Group.
After the Board of Management and Supervisory Board were not prepared to speak to Mr. Grässlin about these issues, Mr. Grässlin made criminal charges against Dr. Dieter Zetsche and other Mercedes employees some of them retired in December 2006. The Stuttgart Public Attorney’s Office has been investigating Dr. Zetsche on suspicion of submitting false sworn assurances since March 2007 and on suspicion of submitting false unsworn evidence in court since October 2007. The investigations are ongoing. Instead of entering into a factual discussion with Mr. Grässlin on the issue of the gray-market business that went on for many years at Mercedes, Board of Management Chairman Dr. Zetsche sued Mr. Grässlin in the Hamburg District Court for payment of damages of at least € 50,000. Dr. Zetsche lost this case at first instance.
In 2007, the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board had the opportunity to thoroughly clear up the extensive gray-market business of recent years and to make it public in order to avoid the possibility of financial damage to Daimler of many millions of euros that could arise if the EU Commission takes action in this matter. This opportunity was unfortunately not utilized. Instead, with the approval of the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board, shareholder Grässlin has been put into severe financial difficulties due to the high level of the amount involved in the case. In the view of the shareholders, this cannot be described as good governance by the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board.
With these court cases, shareholders’ money is being wasted while damaging our company’s reputation and image. Also for this reason, the Critical Daimler Shareholders (KAD, Arndtstraße 31, 70197 Stuttgart, Tel. 0711-608396) see a necessity to inform shareholders via the new website www.daimler-prozesse.net in a differentiated manner about the lawsuits involving former DaimlerChrysler Board of Management Chairman Jürgen Schrempp and today’s Daimler Board of Management Chairman Zetsche and involving Daimler AG against Mr. Grässlin.«