GM Suffers Blow in Bid to Punish Fiat Chrysler Over Union Bribes

General Motors Co.’s efforts to take a rival to task for allegedly inflating its labor costs suffered a major blow with the dismissal of its racketeering lawsuit against Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV.

General Motors failed to show that it was directly harmed by bribes Fiat Chrysler paid to union officials over more than a decade, a federal judge in Detroit ruled on Wednesday. GM claimed Fiat Chrysler got better labor contracts than competing automakers by paying off the United Auto Workers in a scheme that raised GM’s expenses by billions of dollars.

U.S. District Judge Paul Borman said ...