EU Fines Car Makers $495.3 Million Over Vehicle-Recycling Cartel -- 2nd Update
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By Edith Hancock
The European Commission fined more than a dozen automakers and the trade group ACEA 458 million euros ($495.3 million) in an antitrust probe over their role in a end-of-life vehicle-recycling cartel.
The commission said Tuesday that 16 major car manufacturers and the ACEA entered into what the commission called anticompetitive agreements, which involved end-of-life vehicle recycling, for almost 15 years. It said these included agreements not to pay car dismantlers for processing and not to promote how much of an old vehicle can be recycled, recovered and reused.
The European Commission said the groups were trying to prevent consumers from factoring in recycling information when choosing a car, which it said could ease pressure on companies to go beyond legal recycling requirements.
The case relates to end-of-life recycling, when obsolete cars are taken apart and processed for recycling. The commission said the companies colluded together, with ACEA organising meetings among the car makers involved, from 2002 to 2017.
Under EU law, companies are meant to bear the cost of disposing of vehicles at the end of their life, letting consumers dispose of them free with a dismantler. Consumers are also meant to be informed about the recycling performance of new cars.
Volkswagen got the highest fine at 127.7 million euros, followed by Renault-Nissan at 81.46 million euros.
Stellantis, and its Opel subsidiary; General Motors; Ford; BMW; Toyota; Hyundai-Kia; Volvo; Honda; and Tata Motors-unit Jaguar Land Rover were among the car makers also fined for their role in the cartel.
Mercedes-Benz avoided a roughly 35 million-euro fine by revealing the cartel to the commission, the watchdog said.
Mitsubishi, Ford, Stellantis and Opel also had their fines lowered for cooperating with the investigation, the regulator said.
Hyndai-Kia, Volvo, Honda, BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, Toyota, GM, Mercedes-Benz, Ford and Stellantis didn't immediately reply to requests for comment.
Meanwhile, the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority fined ten car makers and two trade bodies 77.68 million pounds ($99.5 million) as it settled a parallel probe into vehicle recycling.
A Renault spokesperson said that the practices date back to a time when the vehicle recycling sector was still developing and that the practices do not financially harm consumers.
ACEA said it cooperated fully with both EU and U.K. authorities and doesn't intend to appeal the decisions. "While acknowledging the infringement, which should not have occurred, we note that it neither produced consumer harm nor reduced innovation," it said.
Write to Edith Hancock at edith.hancock@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
04-01-25 1449ET