Overview

• The European Commission has fined Volkswagen, Stellantis, and 13 other carmakers a total of 458 million euros for antitrust violations in a vehicle recycling cartel.
• The UK Competition and Markets Authority imposed an additional £78 million in fines for similar collusion among carmakers and trade bodies.
• The cartel, active from 2002 to 2017, involved agreements to avoid competing in advertising vehicle recyclability and to withhold payments to dismantlers for processing end-of-life vehicles.
• Volkswagen received the largest fine of 127.69 million euros, while Renault-Nissan, Stellantis, and Ford were also heavily penalized; Mercedes-Benz avoided fines by alerting regulators to the cartel's existence.
• All implicated companies admitted wrongdoing, securing a 10% reduction in fines, while the automakers association ACEA was fined 500,000 euros for organizing meetings between the colluding parties.