BMW has been issued with a £30,000 fine, plus a daily penalty of £15,000, after it failed to provide information following a Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) information request regarding the use of recycled materials in its cars.
In March this year, the CMA launched an investigation into several vehicle manufacturers and trade associations over suspected breaches of competition law. It says the investigations relate to the use of recycled materials in cars, their recyclability and the arrangements for recycling old or written-off vehicles.
Information requests are legal tools used by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to obtain documents and information for its investigations into suspected anti-competitive conduct. The CMA says it regularly makes such mandatory requests as part of its investigations.
The investigations relate to the use of recycled materials in cars, their recyclability and the arrangements for recycling old or written-off vehicles.
The CMA says it believes that important aspects of the suspected conduct were agreed upon outside the UK and implemented in the UK. The CMA suspects that BMW AG, which is based in Germany, or other BMW Group companies based outside the UK, hold information which the CMA considers important to its investigation.
The CMA says it wrote to BMW Group formally requiring it to produce information, including from its parent company BMW AG. The CMA continues that BMW UK provided information; however, the wider BMW Group has failed to comply fully with the CMA’s legal request and has claimed that the CMA does not have jurisdiction, which the CMA doesn’t accept.
The daily penalty will continue to accumulate until BMW Group provides the requested information or the CMA issues an infringement decision or the case is closed.