UK regulator investigates recycling of cars and vans

March 15 (Reuters) – Britain’s competition watchdog on Tuesday launched an investigation into suspected anti-competitive conduct involving a number of unnamed vehicle manufacturers and some industry bodies for not recycling old or discarded vehicles.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it was working closely along with the European Commission, which also launched an investigation into the matter on Tuesday.

The British regulator said the ELVs are required to be disposed of in a sustainable way and carmakers must offer customers a free service for recycling ELVs – a service manufacturers often outsource to third parties.

The European anti-trust regulator in a separate statement said it has conducted unannounced inspections at the premises of companies and associations in the automotive sector located in the bloc, without naming any.

No assumption must be made at this stage that any competition law was broken, both two regulators said.

Reporting by Amna Karimi in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli