BMW among 10 car manufacturers fined £77m for their part in collusion scandal
Car giant BMW, which makes body panels for its Mini model in Swindon, has been fined more than £11m as part of a Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) investigation into illegal collusion among motor manufacturers.
An investigation found that 10 firms had unlawfully coordinated their advertising and recycling practices, which resulted in a total of £77.6m in fines across multiple companies and trade bodies.
BMW, which employs around 600 people at its Swindon pressing plant, was fined £10,660,781 for advertising infringement and £400,144 for buyers’ cartel infringement.
The CMA found the manufacturers had agreed not to compete when advertising the recyclability of their vehicles, preventing consumers from making fully informed choices about the environmental impact of their purchases.
As well as advertising collusion, the manufacturers were involved in a buyers’ cartel that refused to pay third-party companies for recycling end-of-life vehicles (ELVs).
This agreement, which spanned over a decade, meant that suppliers of recycling services were unable to negotiate fair prices, potentially stifling investment in greener recycling technologies.
Lucilia Falsarella Pereira, senior director of competition enforcement at the 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.”
The illegal arrangements were documented in what was internally referred to as the ‘ELV Charta’ and were regularly discussed in meetings between the companies.
The 10 manufacturers – BMW, Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, Peugeot Citroen, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Renault, Toyota, Vauxhall and Volkswagen – and two trade bodies were fined a total of £77,688,917.
Two trade associations – the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) and the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) – were also involved in both illegal agreements.
The manufacturers used ACEA meetings to facilitate these arrangements, with the association itself chairing meetings and intervening when manufacturers acted outside of the terms.
The SMMT also attended these meetings and likewise became involved by settling a handful of disputes.
Mercedes-Benz, although implicated, escaped financial penalties after voluntarily reporting its involvement to the CMA under a leniency policy.
The penalties vary between companies, with Ford receiving the largest total fine of £18.5m. BMW had the second-largest penalty.
All fines must be paid by June 2025, with manufacturers now under increased scrutiny to ensure compliance with competition regulations in the future.
Falsarella Pereira added: “Today’s fines show our commitment to taking action when competition law is broken. By 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.”
BMW has three UK plants – Swindon, Oxford, and Hams Hall, near Birmingham – which employ a total of around 8,000 people and are mainly involved in Mini production.
