Carmakers fined €600 million by the European Commission end-of-life vehicle cartel

Fifteen car makers have been fined almost €600 million by the European Commission and UK Competition and Markets Authority for participation in an illegal cartel that restricted competition when it comes to end-of-life vehicle recycling. The Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) and the UK Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) were also fined for facilitating the cartel like behaviour.

Volkswagen received the biggest penalty of €127 million. Other fines included Renault/Nissan (€81.5 million), Stellantis (€75 million), Ford (€41.5 million), BMW (€25 million), and Toyota (€24 million).

Mercedes-Benz had a fine of €35 million for collusion between 2002 and 2017, written off as it was the company that brought the practice to investigators attention.

The EU Commission says that the carmakers had entered into anti-competitive agreements and had exchanged confidential information illegally. This was designed prevent competition between the carmakers when it came to scrapping and recycling end-of-life cars.

In particular the commission found that the manufacturers had agreed not to advertise and promote their recycling efforts and not to release information about potential recycled content in vehicles. This, the commission says, stopped consumers from considering the likely environmental impact of a particular new car purchase and made it impossible to consider the green credentials of particular models.

Commission Vice President Teresa Ribera commented, “These car manufacturers coordinated for over 15 years to avoid paying for recycling services, by agreeing to not compete with each other on advertising the extent to which their cars could be recycled, and by agreeing to remain silent on the recycled materials used in their new cars. She added, “We will not tolerate cartels of any kind, and that includes those that suppress customer awareness and demand for more environmental-friendly products.”

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in the UK also issued fines to carmakers after arriving at the same findings. It said that “illegally agreed not to compete against one another when advertising what percentage of their cars can be recycled, while also colluding to avoid paying third parties to recycle their customers’ scrap cars.”