European carmakers have been fined €458 million ($495.6m) for participating in a 15-year cartel concerning end-of-life vehicle (ELV) recycling, Kallanish reports.
The European Commission said Tuesday that 16 major automakers and industry trade body ACEA entered into “anticompetitive agreements” and engaged in concerted practices related to vehicle recycling. The investigation was coordinated with the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
Thanks to Mercedes-Benz’s tip-off, officials in Brussels and London found that the parties agreed not to pay car dismantlers for processing ELVs and not to promote how much of an ELV can be recycled, recovered and reused.
“Their goal was to prevent consumers from considering recycling information when choosing a car, which could lower the pressure on companies to go beyond legal requirements,” the EC explains.
Japanese carmakers Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi and Suzuki had a lower involvement, thus a smaller fine. Officials also granted a reduction to Renault since the French carmaker had previously asked to be exempted from the agreement not to advertise the use of recycled materials in new cars.
Stellantis, Mitsubishi and Ford benefitted from reductions of 50%, 30% and 20%, respectively, for their cooperation with the EC. Mercedes-Benz received full immunity for revealing the cartel, avoiding a fine of €35 million.
The investigation issued the biggest fine to Volkswagen at €127.7 million. Renault/Nissan followed with a penalty of €81.46m, while Stellantis (excluding Opel) was hit with a fine of €74.9m.
“Today, we have taken firm action against companies that colluded to prevent competition on recycling,” comments Teresa Ribera, EC vice president for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition. “We will not tolerate cartels of any kind, and that includes those that suppress customer awareness and demand for more environmental-friendly products.”
The official adds that high-quality recycling in key sectors such as automotive will be central to meeting the EU’s circular economy objectives, “not only to cut waste and emissions, but also to reduce dependencies, lower production costs and create a more sustainable and competitive industrial model in Europe”.
While ACEA was the facilitator of the cartel, its UK counterpart SMMT was also involved.
Separately, the CMA issued fines of over €77m to ten carmakers in the UK: BMW, Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, Peugeot, Citroen, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Renault, Toyota, Vauxhall and Volkswagen.
Under the so-called buyers’ cartel, the parties agreed among themselves how they would individually interact with suppliers. “In this case, the manufacturers involved mutually agreed the price that they would each individually pay for recycling services (zero), thereby preventing the providers of recycling services from negotiating a higher price,” the CMA explains.
