As Ford Authority reported back in March 2022, Ford is among several automakers that have been under investigation by the European Union and the UK amid claims that they failed to recycle old or discarded vehicles, otherwise known as “end-of-life vehicles (ELVs).” Those vehicles are required by law to be disposed of in a sustainable and environmentally responsible manner, while automakers must also offer customers a free vehicle recycling service that is typically outsourced to third-party companies. Now, Ford and some of its rivals have been fined for those actions.
Ford – along with BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, Peugeot Citroen, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Renault, Toyota, Vauxhall and Volkswagen, along with a pair of trade bodies, have been fined a total of £77,688,917 ($100,573,352 USD) after each was found guilty of illegally agreeing not to compete against one another when advertising what percentage of their cars can be recycled, as well as colluding to avoid paying third parties to recycle their customers’ scrap cars following an investigation by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
Interestingly, Mercedes-Benz was also involved in these agreements, but it’s exempt from paying a financial penalty as it alerted the CMA to its participation via the authority’s leniency policy. Between April 2004 and May 2018, those manufacturers agreed that they would not pay companies to handle the recycling of their customers’ ELVs. This effectively meant the companies providing this service were unable to negotiate a price with manufacturers. Other companies and bodies later joined the unlawful agreement, including the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), the Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders (SMMT), Nissan, and Mitsubishi in 2006, and Jaguar Land Rover in 2016. As for Ford, it has been ordered to pay £18,541,929 ($24,003,083 USD) for its transgressions.
“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,” said Lucilia Falsarella Pereira, Senior Director of Competition Enforcement at the CMA. “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 recognize that competing businesses may want to work together to help the environment – in those cases our door is open to help them do so.”
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