By Maria Ward-Brennan
BMW and Volkswagen suffered a defeat at the Court of Appeal today after it ruled that the German car companies must comply with information requests from the UK’s competition agency.
Back in March 2022, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched an investigation into suspected anti-competitive behaviour involving a number of vehicle manufacturers, and some industry bodies, relating to the recycling of old or written-off cars and vans.
In that same year, the BMW Group did not fully comply with the CMA’s legal requests for information, arguing the CMA did not have jurisdiction.
The CMA did not accept this argument and issued it with fines for non-compliance with the information requests: both a fixed penalty of £30,000 and a daily penalty of £15,000 for every day it doesn’t comply.
BMW and VW issued legal challenges, which saw the CMA losing at both the Competition Appeal Tribunal and the High Court, with both courts ruling in favour of the car companies.
However, the CMA took the case to the Court of Appeal and won on all grounds today.
The Court of Appeal ruled today that the CMA’s ability to conduct competition investigations would be compromised were it unable to obtain information from overseas.
The judges stated that it would create “a perverse incentive for conspirators to move offshore to organise cartels directed at harming the United Kingdom market”.
Commenting on decision, Sarah Cardell, chief executive of the CMA, said: “We are very pleased with today’s important ruling which confirms that the CMA can secure information from overseas businesses when investigating suspected breaches of competition law.”
“Our cases increasingly involve cross-border, multi-national businesses and information requests are a key tool by which we can investigate whether those businesses have been engaged in unlawful conduct.”
“Today’s unanimous judgment strengthens the CMA’s ability to investigate, enforce against and deter any anti-competitive conduct that harms consumers, businesses and markets in the UK,” she added.
A spokesperson for BMW said: “We have noted the decision by the Court of Appeal and will carefully review the judgement. We will consider our legal options in order to get the legal situation finally clarified. This applies in particular with regard to the conformity of the decision with previous case law of the UK Supreme Court from 2021 in the KBR case.”
A VW Group spokesperson said that it was “analysing the judgment and are considering next steps”.
