£460m in fines for car makers that agreed to not compete on recycling claims in advertising

Ten leading car makers and the British and European automotive trade bodies have agreed to pay fines totalling more than £77 million after admitting breaking UK competition laws, and 15 car makers have been fined a combined £382.7m by the European Commission in a related probe. 

The UK fines have been levied by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), following a three-year investigation into what it ruled was an illegal agreement between the manufacturers not to compete against each other when advertising the percentage of their cars that could be recycled.

BMW, Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Renault, Toyota and Volkswagen have all been fined by the CMA, as have Stellantis (as the owner of Citroën, Peugeot and Vauxhall) and General Motors (as the former owner of Vauxhall).

The UK's Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) and the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) were also fined.

Mercedes-Benz was also involved in the agreement but will not incur a penalty because it alerted the CMA to its participation in the scheme.

Meanwhile, the European Commission (EC) has fined 15 firms and the ACEA after a parallel investigation into what it called a cartel concerning end-of-life vehicle recycling. Those include the 10 firms fined by the CMA plus Honda, Hyundai-Kia, Mazda, Suzuki and Volvo.

Both the CMA and EC rulings centred around two key areas.

The first concerned the sustainability information, including recyclability, that manufacturers are legally required to detail in their advertising. That information is required so that potential buyers can consider how environmentally friendly a car is.

The CMA found that all the manufacturers in the scheme agreed not to advertise if their vehicles went above the minimum recyclability requirement of 85%.

With the exception of Renault, they also agreed not to inform customers about the percentage of recycled material used in vehicles.

It's illegal for firms to agree not to compete against each other in such a manner, with the CMA saying it meant customers were unable to fully compare the green credentials of vehicles. 

The agreement was spelt out in a document called the ELV Charta and was referred to as a "gentleman's agreement".

The CMA said this agreement was widely referenced in internal emails, documents and meetings and that some manufacturers even challenged others that they felt had breached it.