Sixteen major European car manufacturers have been fined a total of £460 million by the EU Commission and the UK government for forming an illegal car recycling cartel.
The manufacturers involved in the cartel, which includes BMW, Ford, Mercedes, Stellantis and Volkswagen, agreed they would not pay third party vehicle dismantlers to recycle their customers’ end-of-life vehicles. These are vehicles that are no longer fit for use due to age, excessive wear and tear or irreparable damage.
In the UK, car manufacturers must offer customers a free service for recycling end-of-life vehicles. But the cartel’s actions meant local scrap car recycling businesses – who handle the bulk of this work – could not negotiate prices or turn a profit from the service. This dodgy dealing had been going on for 15 years, from May 2002 to September 2017.
To further control the market, the cartel illegally agreed to hide how much of their vehicles could be recycled. Plus, with the exception of Renault, every car maker agreed to not publicise the amount of recycled material used in the production of their vehicles.
But it gets worse, because the cartel used European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) meetings to coordinate its actions. The ACEA chaired these illegal gatherings – and representatives from the trade body were even pulled in to settle any disputes between manufacturers.
Representatives from the UK’s Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) also attended these illegal meetings and helped to settle some of the cartel’s disputes. As a result, both the ACEA and SMMT have been fined.
How were the fines allocated?
Volkswagen received the heaviest fines. The sum of the penalties it received from the UK and the EU totalled more than £120 million. The Renault/Nissan Alliance received the next steepest bill – a total figure of more than £77 million. Stellantis took third place on the podium with fines worth upwards of £67 million.
However, some manufactures got off lightly. Both the EU and UK have leniency policies that grant any businesses involved in cartel activity immunity from penalties, or a reduction in the penalty they’re required to pay, if they rat other members of the cartel out.
Mercedes blew the whistle on Europe’s car recycling cartel, so it managed to avoid fines altogether. Plus, every manufacturer assisted the UK government in its investigation, so they all received at least a 20% reduction in their British fines.
Stellantis benefitted particularly well from this policy in the EU, as it received a 50% reduction for providing evidence that proved the existence of the cartel. Had it not complied with the investigation, it would have received a penalty of €150 million, which would have outstripped Volkswagen’s EU fine by more than €20 million.
What does the industry have to say for itself?
Parkers has reached out for comment from every car manufacturer involved in the cartel and, unsurprisingly, the responses have all been quite brief and formulaic. It’s no wonder. The investigation’s an embarrassing blow to all their reputations.
Volvo said: ‘Volvo Cars confirms it has been part of the European Commission’s investigation into End-of-Life Vehicle Recycling in the EU. Volvo Cars has cooperated with the Commission throughout the investigation and can confirm it has reached a settlement with the Commission and will not comment further.’
The SMMT issued a similarly truncated response, saying: ‘SMMT cooperated fully with the CMA’s investigation and accepts its findings. SMMT takes its competition law obligations extremely seriously and has thoroughly reviewed and bolstered its protocols to safeguard current and future compliance.’
Renault’s response has been the most detailed so far. A spokesman for the brand told Parkers: ‘The infringing practices date back to 2002 and ended in 2018, at a time when the structuring of the ELV (end-of-life vehicle) recycling sector was still nascent, as was environmental communication. The practices do not financially harm consumers.
‘What is being penalized is the principle of having agreed among carmakers on how to manage the issue of ELV collection and treatment, and certain aspects of advertising vehicle characteristics.
‘Regarding the environmental characteristics of new vehicles (recyclability and recycling), this has been governed by regulations that Renault Group has always respected.
‘With respect to the use of recyclates, Renault specifically distanced itself from the collusion and was the first carmaker to promote these characteristics.
‘Renault is one of the many carmakers to acknowledge the infringements and has fully cooperated with the Competition authorities since the launch of the investigation. It has reinforced its compliance programme to prevent the occurrence of such risks, while being transparent in its public communication.’
What do regulators have to say about the cartel?
Lucilia Falsarella Pereira, Senior Director of Competition Enforcement for the British Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), said: ‘Agreeing with competitors the prices you’ll pay for a service or colluding to restrict competition is illegal and this can extend to how you advertise your products.
‘This kind of collusion can limit consumers’ ability to make informed choices and lower the incentive for companies to invest in new initiatives.
‘Today’s fines show our commitment to taking action when competition law is broken. In accordance with our leniency policy, we’ve given discounts to those who came forward with information and co-operated at an early stage, which helps to get the swiftest outcomes.
‘We recognise that competing businesses may want to work together to help the environment – in those cases our door is open to help them do so.’
What does this mean for car buyers?
We’re still digging into how the dismantling of this cartel will affect (or has affected) consumers, but there’s a chance new car prices have increased as a result. Car makers are now paying to have end-of-life vehicles scrapped, which is eating into their margins – and we wouldn’t be surprised if that expense was being passed onto consumers.
We appreciate that correlation doesn’t equate to causality but, back in 2024, our sister publication Fleet News reported how new car prices had rocketed across Europe between 2019 and 2024 – directly after the cartel’s activities are said to have ended.
In Germany, the average price of a brand-new combustion car increased by a whopping 26.1%, while Spain’s combustion cars saw an increase of 17.7%. In the UK, meanwhile, the average price of an electric car increased by 16.5%, while the cost of new internal combustion car shot up by almost 30%. That’s light years ahead of inflation.
We suggest you keep an eye on this story if you scrapped your old car to buy a new car between 2002 and 2017. If Volkswagen’s dieselgate scandal and the recent car finance interest scandal are anything to go by, once the legal system gets its teeth into the case, there could be compensation up for grabs.
Only time will tell. We’ll continue to update this story as it develops.
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