Ten carmakers and two industry groups have been fined a combined total of nearly £78m for withholding information about vehicle recycling.
BMW, Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, Peugeot Citroen, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Renault, Toyota, Vauxhall, and Volkswagen, and two trade bodies were fined by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
The carmakers and trade groups were found to have agreed to withhold information from customers regarding the amount of their cars that could actually be recycled.
It comes as the European Commission also handed out fines totalling €458m (£382.7m) to 15 carmakers, plus the European Automobiles Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), for breaking recycling laws.
“We will not tolerate cartels of any kind, and that includes those that suppress customer awareness and demand for more environmental-friendly products,” said Teresa Ribera, executive vice-president for the European Commission’s clean energy transition arm.
The CMA said, with the exception of Renault, that the carmakers also agreed they would not tell customers what percentage of their cars were made from recycled materials.
The regulator added that most of the carmakers involved did this for 15 years from 2002.
It said that eight of the manufacturers it had fined made a “buyers’ cartel” with other carmakers joining later.
The buyers’ cartel meant they agreed not to pay companies to handle the recycling of their customers’ vehicles once the cars were considered at the end of their lives.
Both the ACEA and the Society of Motor Manufacturers (SMMT) were involved in these illegal agreements, the CMA said.
Carmakers are legally required to include details on recyclability in their adverts so customers can take this into account before buying.
All of the carmakers and industry bodies involved, apart from Mercedes-Benz, which has been granted immunity from penalties, have now settled with the CMA.
That means they admitted to taking part in this illegal behaviour and agreed to pay the fines.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said it fully cooperated with the CMA’s investigation and has accepted the findings.
It said in a statement that it takes its competition law obligations “extremely seriously” and has “thoroughly reviewed and bolstered its protocols to safeguard current and future compliance.”
